Six years after the war had ended, however, Rar and the surviving members of the Myrkr team received a call through the Force from Raynar Thul, who had been abducted by Dark JediLomi Plo and Welk during the mission and presumed dead. Traveling to the Unknown Regions, Alema Rar discovered Thul, now leader of the insectoid Killikspecies, engaged in a border dispute with the Chiss Ascendancy. The Killik hive mind, as it did to Rar's Jedi companions, soon rendered the Twi'lek a Joiner, her individuality largely subsumed by the power of the Killiks' natural telepathic bond. Unlike other Jedi who became Joiners, however, Alema Rar was made aware of the Gorog nest—overseen by Lomi Plo—which was secretly controlling Thul and the Killiks. Plo, in fact a Sith Master, manipulated Alema Rar's still powerful emotions of grief and anger over her sister's death, thus ensuring that the Jedi Knight completed her fall to the dark side; the Twi'lek turned against her former friends, becoming the second Night Herald of the Gorog. By the time the resulting Dark Nest Crisis and Swarm War had concluded, Rar had grown mentally unstable. Battling the Jedi order on the frontlines, and mutilated through lightsaber duels with Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa Solo, Rar descended into full insanity following the death of Plo and the destruction of the Gorog nest.

The Twi'lek was thought to have been killed on the planet Tenupe in the final battle of the Swarm War; she did, however, survive, returning to civilized space in 40 ABY after spending two years in Tenupe's wild jungles. Her continued existence known only to Chiss-aligned bounty hunter and former comrade-in-arms Jagged Fel, Rar was eager to exact her own form of revenge upon Organa Solo and Skywalker. Once she had allied herself with the resurgent Dark Lady of the SithLumiya, Rar hunted her targets during the Second Galactic Civil War, engaging the Skywalkers and the Solos in a series of skirmishes. When Mara Jade Skywalker was killed, in fact by Lumiya's new Sith apprenticeJacen Solo, the Twi'lek was thought to be responsible, and a Jedi strike team was formed to neutralize her. A brief dalliance with the new Sith Order, the possession of an ancient Meditation Sphere, even the knowledge of advanced Sith techniques—all were ultimately unable to protect Rar; the fallen Jedi was tracked down to the late Lumiya's retreat, and died there at the hands of Jagged Fel.

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Alema Rar was born around 10 ABY into one of the most dangerous ryll dens of Kala'uun, the largest underground city of the Twi'lekhomeworld, Ryloth. The Force-sensitive Twi'lek had a sister, Numa Rar, with whom she formed a close bond as they worked together as enslaved[2] dancers, earning money to survive.[1] They grew up together in the cave warrens of Ryloth, and throughout her life Rar retained her preference for confined spaces.[10] Together, they witnessed much of the cruelty and hardships of the galaxy. As a dancer on Ryloth, Rar would learn the grace and dexterity which would aid her in lightsabercombat in years to come, as well as the feminine charm found alluring by so many males.[1] She came to love dancing,[11] despite her status as a slave.[2] Eventually, the Rar sisters were rescued from their hand-to-mouth existence when they were discovered by Jedi KnightDaeshara'cor,[1] who purchased their freedom once she recognized their innate talent in the Force.[2]

The Rar sisters were affected by tragedy in the first year of the war when Daeshara'cor diedfighting the Yuuzhan Vong at Ithor.[13] Alema Rar grieved for her fallen protector, but also developed an angry focus which failed to fade even as time passed.[12] Alongside Numa, Alema went on to become one of the founders and leaders of the resistance force against the Yuuzhan Vong on the occupied planet New Plympto. On New Plympto, Rar's anger and grief were tempered by the presence of her sister.[1] The resistance, supplied by maverick Jedi Kyp Durron, saw many successes against the invading Yuuzhan Vong.[14] As the leaders of the movement, Rar and her sister used their physical similarities to masquerade as a single Twi'lek woman, or even a Human with the suitable disguises.[1] At meetings, only one of the two sisters would ever be present, maintaining the charade that only one existed.[12]

This deception fooled the Yuuzhan Vong, but Rar was faced with other, more personal problems. Her partisan war against the enemy was drawing her close to the dark side of the Force, and Master Skywalker, the head of the Jedi Order, felt that Rar was putting her integrity as a Jedi at risk. Tragedy was soon to strike the Rar sisters again; the New Plympto resistance became successful enough that the frustrated Yuuzhan Vong decided to raze the planet, rather than continue to attempt subjugation.[1] All life was wiped from the surface of the planet, rendering it uninhabitable and killing seven million.[15] The Rar sisters were only just able to flee in time, hiding with several thousand other beings aboard a fleet of intrasystem ore miners until help arrived in the form of the CorelliancruiserNebula Chaser, already loaded with refugees. The captain of the Nebula Chaser, Pollux, promised the Jedi sisters safe asylum; many during the war had sought personal gain in turning wanted Jedi over to the Yuuzhan Vong, but the Rar sisters accepted the captain's offer and boarded the cruiser.[1]

In a deserted star system, the Nebula Chaser was intercepted by a Yuuzhan Vong frigate, the Gift of Anguish, which dispatched a boarding craft to dock with the cruiser. As the captain of a refugee ship, Pollux was not immediately under risk, but it soon became apparent that the Yuuzhan Vong were seeking Jedi. The Rar sisters hid in Pollux's cabin, observing via a console feed as a group of Yuuzhan Vong warriors questioned the captain and his crew. With the Yuuzhan Vong, however, they sensed an unusual, feral presence, somehow attuned to the Force. The boarding party had brought with them a voxyn, a bio-engineered creature bred from the vornskyrs of Myrkr, able to hunt using the Force. Captain Pollux had claimed that there were no Jedi aboard the Nebula Chaser; Rar and her sister, suspecting the voxyn's abilities, were aware that if caught they had put their protector's life in danger. With their power to shut down their presences in the Force having no effect, Rar wished to confront and kill the voxyn. Her sister, on the other hand, knew that the Yuuzhan Vong would kill the crew once they discovered Pollux's lie.[1]

Disguised as dancers, the Rar sisters fled towards the cruiser's escape pods. On the way they had to abandon their lightsabers, in order to trick the Yuuzhan Vong who questioned them, and thus when the voxyn intercepted the Rar sisters as they entered an escape pod in one of the cruiser's launch bays, they had only the Force to defend themselves against the creature's many natural weapons. In the ensuing chaos, Numa took a blast of corrosive acid in the face from the voxyn's mouth. Rar held her sister as Numa died, suffering severe acidic burns in the process, and before long the escape pod launched into space. There, it was eventually picked up by the Jade Shadow, a starship piloted by Mara Jade Skywalker and her niece, Jaina Solo.[1]

Calrissian: "Watch Alema. She'll do what's necessary, and so should you."Solo: "What are you saying? That the ends justify the means?"Rar: "He means we only have two concerns. The first is to complete our mission. The second is to return alive."Solo: "That way lies the dark side. If we have no concern for the methods we use to win our goals, we are no better than the Emperor…or the Yuuzhan Vong."Rar: "Perhaps so. But if the path before us is dark, we dare not shy away—not for our own sakes, but for the sake of those who will fall if we fail."—Lando Calrissian, Jacen Solo, and Alema Rar[src]

Rar was taken to Eclipse Station, the secret Jedi base in the Deep Core, in a state of nervous collapse. At the station, she healed in a bactatank and was unaware that as an act of reprisal the Nebula Chaser had been destroyed, with ten thousand refugees lost. Even without this knowledge, Rar was raging inside with grief and anger. While the Twi'lek recovered the threat of the voxyn grew greater. Several Jedi fell to the creatures, which were deposited on worlds and relay junctions across the invasion corridor to seek out hidden Force-wielders. Eventually, Jedi healerCilghal discovered that the voxyn were being cloned from a queen. A mission to Froz was organized to retrieve more of the creatures for study, and Anakin Solo and a squadron of fellow Jedi managed to return with several dead voxyn. By the time Alema Rar was out of the bacta tank, and informed of the destruction of the Nebula Chaser, it had been discerned that the voxyn queen was located on Myrkr.[1]

Rar attended a meeting to discuss the threat, where she began to inveigle her way into the affections of Anakin Solo, whom she found attractive. Using her feminine charms, Rar soon entered into a subtle rivalry with Tahiri Veila, a childhood friend of Solo's, over the young man's affections. Sexual pursuits, however, were soon put aside as the gathering descended into an argument. Solo had raised the idea of a team of Jedi turning themselves in to the Yuuzhan Vong, thus gaining access to Yuuzhan Vong occupied space, before traveling to Myrkr and ending the voxyn threat. Jacen Solo, who was pursuing a pacifistic approach to conflict, claimed that the Yuuzhan Vong would retaliate for any attack on Myrkr, killing the millions of refugees currently held hostage at the planet Talfaglio. Unable to bear her own responsibility for the deaths of her sister and the thousands of refugees who had died indirectly due to her actions, Rar took the line of blaming any innocent death on the Yuuzhan Vong themselves, and renounced any culpability for possible Yuuzhan Vong reprisals at Talfaglio.[1]

Calrissian, masquerading as Fitzgibbon Lane, planned to surrender the Jedi to a Yuuzhan Vong vessel. Once the team was aboard, it was to escape with the aid of the hidden YVH S-series battle droids, take over the ship and journey to Myrkr. Among the diverse group, however, differences were already arising. Jedi such as Jacen Solo, Zekk and Ulaha Kore felt that it was imperative that the Jedi should not go into the mission feeling that any action was necessary so long as it enabled success. Alema Rar, on the other hand, was the principal adherent of the view that any means justified the ends—if the dark side was to help them complete their mission, then Rar felt it was a simple choice to take up its power and save the New Jedi Order from the voxyn. The Twi'lek was supported by Raynar Thul, who had recently lost his friend Lusa to voxyn and desired revenge. It was decided that the Jedi, in an attempt to promote team unity and uphold each other's spirits during the coming stress of interrogation, death, and battle, would form a Force Meld. With such a tactic in mind the Jedi set off with Calrissian.[1]

The Lady Luck, with the Jedi on board, traveled to the edge of the invasion corridor and was soon intercepted and boarded by the Exquisite Death, a Yuuzhan Vong vessel. Calrissian did not inform Rar and the other Jedi that the Yuuzhan Vong were aboard the yacht, so that their surprise would appear genuine. Rar, however, sensed the presence of a voxyn, and the specter of another encounter with the beast filled the Twi'lek with fear. Rar was frightened less of the creature itself than what her own reaction would be—letting the team down, and having their deaths on her conscience, was in her opinion worse than any voxyn. Although the Twi'lek was calmed by Raynar Thul through the Force Meld, matters soon began to go awry. The Yuuzhan Vong warriors stormed into the galley, where the Jedi were eating, and the strike team realized that the plan was in process, and set about playing their parts. To grant the YVH droids time to attach themselves to the hull of the Exquisite Death, docked to the Lady Luck, the Jedi had to create a disturbance.[1]

Using the Force, the Jedi tore weapons lockers open and took up arms. Tesar Sebatyne held Duman Yaght, the Yuuzhan Vong commander, hostage. As expected, Calrissian had rendered the blasters useless—the Jedi team needed to be deep behind enemy lines before the takeover of the vessel, and thus it was not conducive to the plan's success if Yaght and his warriors were killed so early. As the Yuuzhan Vong retaliated against the unarmed Jedi, and led them all too quickly through the docking membrane to their vessel, Ulaha Kore attempted to buy more time for the YVH droids to complete their clandestine mission. For her efforts, the Bith was stabbed through the back with a coufee blade by one of the warriors. Rar and every other member felt Kore's pain, but the Twi'lek was relieved that no one had actually died, and that she had not broken down. Calrissian, forced either to depart or to call off the mission entirely and rescue Kore, chose the former, leaving the Jedi to secure the situation.[1]

With her fellow Jedi, Rar was incarcerated on the Exquisite Death, as Yaght selected members of the strike team for torture sessions with the voxyn. Kore was tortured extensively; already suffering from the severe wound to her back and the puncture in her single lung, the Bith was supported by the Force Meld as best the Jedi could manage in their weakened state. Commander Yaght questioned Kore continually on the existence of the secret Jedi base, and when the other members of the strike team began to feel that it would be easier on the wounded Bith if she relinquished the name and location, Rar grew worried, able to see that Yaght's goal was not to break Kore's spirit, but the spirit of the strike team. When she communicated this fear to Jaina Solo, Rar was struck and rendered unconcious by her captors. Despite her wounds, Kore soon managed to bring about the death of the voxyn, and the Yuuzhan Vong commander became aware that the Jedi were too dangerous to be incarcerated for a long period of interrogation. The Exquisite Death traveled faster towards Myrkr.[1]

The time for the takeover was soon at hand, and Anakin Solo transmitted a signal to the two YVH droids which brought them out of hiding to rescue the Jedi strike team. The Yuuzhan Vong warriors in the immediate area were killed, but the number of enemies aboard presented a daunting task. Rhysode was also being held hostage in an unknown part of the vessel, adding further complications. With Anakin Solo in the lead, Rar and the other Jedi worked their way through the vessel. She provided advice to Solo, careful to make her interest in him apparent, as well as going on point with the Jedi, using her lightsaber alongside his to cut a path towards Rhysode. The strike team reached the bridge, where Duman Yaght was holding Rhysode at the point of his coufee. After a short exchange, the commander was killed and Rhysode saved. With the Exquisite Death now in their hands, the Jedi prepared either to enter hibernation trances to recover from their trauma, or to hunt down the remaining voxyn roaming the vessel's ventilation ducts. After several days of travel through hyperspace the strike team reached their destination.[1]

Immediately on arrival in the Myrkr system, Solo discovered that there were other Jedi present aboard the worldshipBaanu Rass orbiting the planet. Rar counseled against rescuing the trapped Force-sensitives, instead arguing that the worldship housing the voxyn project should be destroyed as planned with a high-power baradiummissile. It soon became a moot point as Yuuzhan Vong forces sprung a trap and the missile was instead used to obliterate a matalok cruiser leading the hostile forces. Rar and the others loaded into pods and landed on the worldship's surface. In space, 2-1S, one of the YVH droids, was lost, and Ulaha Kore remained to pilot the Exquisite Death as a decoy, playing a last song by means of a rudimentary instrument to Rar and the other Jedi before she died. On the worldship's surface, the team trekked across through various traps, which Rar's experience on New Plympto enabled them to avoid. As Yuuzhan Vong warriors began searching the area, the team disguised themselves as warriors with holoshrouds, with Rar in the lead as a practiced insertion agent.[1]

Rar led the Jedi to a warren which housed Force-negating ysalamiri creatures, as well as the Jedi presences Solo had detected on the approach. Rar killed two warriors in the storming of the ysalamiri warren with her new silver-bladed lightsaber. She then watched, with fascination, as a Human woman held in bonds against the rear wall displayed her strength in the dark side of the Force, utilizing a web of Force energy to dice a Yuuzhan Vong shaper into bloody fragments. Rar freed the woman, who identified herself as Lomi Plo. When Plo saw Alema Rar's internal turmoil and thirst for vengeance, she appealed to Rar's darker emotions; although Solo warned the Twi'lek against such uses of the Force, Rar ignored the team leader, rounding upon the young man and proclaiming that when he had witnessed what she had during the war, he could then lecture her about the dark side. As Plo and the other Dark Jedi with her, a younger man known only as Welk, pledged their allegiance and aid in destroying the voxyn, the strike team learned that a Yuuzhan Vong frigate in orbit over the worldship had deposited over a hundred warriors on the surface.[1]

Lomi Plo offered to lead the team through the voxyn training warren and the Jedi began to fracture over the best course of action. Zekk detested the idea of accepting help from dark side adherents, whereas Rar saw Plo and Welk as the best chance for survival. When two coralskipperstarfighters made a run on the strike team's location, YVH 2-4S was lost, and Rar gave her breath mask to Plo in a brief gas attack deployed by one of the Yuuzhan Vong pilots. Unprotected from the gas, and pursued through a lake by a voxyn, Rar barely managed to escape the creature before being rendered unconscious by the gas. She and a similarly comatose Welk were taken to safety by Veila and Tekli while the team set up an ambush for the pursuing Yuuzhan Vong warrior contingent. The unconscious Twi'lek went hidden and unscathed as the warriors were successfully routed and ambushed.[1]

The voxyn training warren was hazardous, replete with the feral creatures, traps and pursuing Yuuzhan Vong warriors. The strike team became accustomed to various attacks, and although no one else was lost during their flight, supplies of weapons soon began to run low. En route through a slave commune built into the voxyn warren, the team was ambushed. Rar fought frantically alongside her companions; Eryl Besa was lost and Jovan Drark mortally wounded. Rar took up the fallen Rodian's longblaster to hold off the approaching Yuuzhan Vong, many of whom were disguised as slaves, adding to the confusion. During the fight, Anakin Solo was wounded. With his spleen punctured, the team leader was in need of urgent medical attention; Rar bought some time by using concussion grenades to seal off a passage. Bela Hara died shortly thereafter, and the Twi'lek used her sharp sense of direction, honed in the warrens of Ryloth, to present the strike team with the next step in their mission—entering the voxyn caves themselves.[1]

In the caves, the team was beset by feral voxyn; when Raynar Thul was wounded by a tail sting, Rar helped the young man to get to safety, but he was soon wounded again. As the casualties and wounds mounted, Rar was once again put on point to lead the team through the labyrinthine warren. The Twi'lek was able to direct the team to safety, as well as a battered Corellian Engineering CorporationYV-888light freighter—the Tachyon Flier. With Raynar Thul left sleeping in the Tachyon Flier while Lowbacca fixed the starship, Rar and the rest of the team gathered for an assault on the cloning lab, a giant organic structure known as a grashal in which the voxyn queen was housed. Lomi Plo and Welk chose this moment to steal the light freighter with Thul still on board and made their escape from the Myrkr system. Rar, along with the others, were shocked by the actions of the Dark Jedi, as it ensured that Anakin Solo could never leave the worldship, as he was wounded internally.[1]

There was little to be done but complete the mission as swiftly as possible, and with Drark's longblaster Rar prepared for the attack on the cloning grashal. She supported her fellow team members as they entered, using the longblaster to kill Yuuzhan Vong warriors who came too close. Ultimately, Anakin Solo surrendered his body to the Force and let its energy control him, using the vast power to fight off the Yuuzhan Vong and wipe out all the voxyn cloning tissue reserves. At some point, Rar handed the longblaster over to Jaina Solo, who protected her brother as he died. With the voxyn queen on the run, the surviving members of the team relocated to a hidden warren while Tesar Sebatyne sought to find the queen. Lowbacca reported back that the Yuuzhan Vong were moving Solo's body, and Alema Rar, along with Zekk, Jaina Solo and Tahiri Veila, set off to recover the Jedi's corpse.[1]

Solo's body was simple enough to recover; the Twi'lek used her longblaster to pick off Yuuzhan Vong warriors before approaching the corpse along with Jaina Solo, who called upon the dark side of the Force and used Force lightning to kill the last warrior protecting it. Shaken by Solo's anger, Rar led her companion from the chamber along with Veila, Zekk, Lowbacca and the body of the deceased Anakin. While Jacen Solo and the others hunted the voxyn queen, Rar and her companions stole a Yuuzhan Vong shuttle and attacked the frigate berthed on the worldship's surface. Despite Jaina Solo's skill, the shuttle was shot down and crash-landed not far from the frigate. Rar descended further into her hatred and anger for the Yuuzhan Vong as she fired upon the approaching Yuuzhan Vong, laughing as the longblaster's laser beams laid her enemies low. Jacen Solo set off to hunt down the voxyn queen alone, while Sebatyne and the others captured the Yuuzhan Vong frigate, the Ksstarr.[1]

Rar boarded the Ksstarr along with the others and they made their escape, attempting to effect the extraction of Jacen Solo, who had managed to defeat the voxyn queen and end the threat. Unfortunately for the strike team survivors, a Yuuzhan Vong fleet entered the system, forcing them to abandon Jacen Solo and retreat.[1] The Yuuzhan Vong warships pursued the frigate doggedly, attempting to capture Jaina Solo to sacrifice alongside her brother. This agenda kept the Yuuzhan Vong vessels from being able to harm the Ksstarr significantly, and Solo soon took the frigate into hyperspace to Coruscant, the New Republic capital.[16] Of its seventeen original Jedi, nine left the system aboard the Ksstarr. During the battle in the cloning grashal, Rar had felt, as had the others, the sensation of Raynar Thul's departure from their view of the Force. The scion of the House of Thul was thought lost, killed aboard the Tachyon Flier, and became one more casualty of the costly, but ultimately successful, Mission to Myrkr.[1]

There is nothing wrong with vengeance. It is a noble emotion—a powerful one.

—Lomi Plo, to Alema Rar, Star by Star

On arrival in the Coruscant system, the Ksstarr was thrust into the latter stages of the Battle of Coruscant. The Yuuzhan Vong had taken the New Republic capital, and Rar was quick to warn her companions not to fire upon any Yuuzhan Vong vessels, as the Ksstarr was already under fire from elements of the New Republic Defense Force. Jaina Solo, at the helm, was able to identify the frigate as an ally of the New Republic through a series of unique maneuvers which were recognized by her father, Han Solo, also present at the battle. Spared destruction, but by now heavily damaged, the Ksstarr made a hyperspace jump away from the engagement, before it was decided, to Rar's lukewarm approval, to travel to the Hapes Cluster for refuge. There, Tenel Ka Djo departed in one of the frigate's escape pods to pave the way for the strike team's arrival. Djo was captured by pirates, however, and Rar went with the others to rescue their friend. En route, the strike team felt the apparent death of Jacen Solo in the Force, compounding the grief they already suffered. As it became obvious that Jaina Solo was continuing down a path to darkness, Rar began to see in the young woman a kindred spirit.[16]

Eventually, after rescuing Djo, who was the heir to the Hapan throne, the Jedi survivors reached Hapes and were received as royal guests. Sometime later, amid the political machinations and subterfuge occurring on the planet, Alema Rar attended the funeral of Anakin Solo, where the young Jedi's body was cremated. Also in attendance was the leader of the Jedi Order, Luke Skywalker, as well as Anakin Solo's parents, with whom the Myrkr survivors returned to Eclipse Station, leaving Jaina Solo, Tenel Ka and Lowbacca in the Hapes Cluster.[16] Rar next saw action in the Pyria system, where on the planet Borleias the New Republic Third Fleet, commanded by GeneralWedge Antilles, had set up a defense, in the hopes of stalling the Yuuzhan Vong fleet until the New Republic's government could organize its wartime capabilities efficiently enough to continue fighting the invaders. The Twi'lek traveled aboard the Solos' freighter, the Millennium Falcon, acting as a gunner, along with Rhysode, Sebatyne, Zekk and Veila. When the Millennium Falcon emerged in the Pyria system in the middle of pitched space battle, Rar kept coralskippers from attacking the freighter. Han Solo landed the starship on Borleias at the New Republic base, where Rar and the others were cheered by the waiting base personnel.[17]

Several Pyrian days after her arrival on the planet, Alema Rar accompanied Lando Calrissian, also present with the garrison, on a mission to discover how the Yuuzhan Vong appeared to be tracking and intercepting refugee ships. Calrissian enlisted the aid of Rogue Squadron, an elite starfighter unit, as well as the resources of smuggling and intelligence kingpin Talon Karrde. A Gallofreetransport, the Jeolocas, that was carrying refugees was selected, and Rar was infiltrated into the crew. Rogue Squadron concealed themselves in a cargo container attached to the transport, and YVH droids waited, sealed in crates, in the vessel's holds. When the Jeolocas emerged from hyperspace, and a Yuuzhan Vong frigate analog was found waiting, Rar put the plan into motion. She subdued the ship's captain, breaking the Corellian's wrist when he attempted to resist, and met the Yuuzhan Vong boarding party dressed in his uniform. Once she had tricked the Yuuzhan Vong leader into believing that the Jeolocas was transporting vital supplies for the Jedi order, she led the Yuuzhan Vong warriors to the cargo bay. There, Rar killed the officer and began fighting the rest of his command, with the help of the YVH droids. Concurrently, Rogue Squadron wiped out the Yuuzhan Vong frigate. Rar finished fighting, and moved through the hold jauntily killing surviving Yuuzhan Vong technology. With the mission a success—although it remained unknown how the Yuuzhan Vong were tracking the refugee ships—the Twi'lek proposed to Calrissian that they should celebrate, making indiscreet sexual overtures. The gambler politely turned Rar's offer down.[17]

Fate robbed you of your childhood, and your only family. Though the Jedi can't replace either, I hope you will look to us for the love and friendship we can give you, and the strength we can lend you in times of need. Now go to Kashyyyk, join your mind with the others, and heal.

—Luke Skywalker, to Alema Rar, Destiny's Way

The campaign for Borleias was ultimately successful,[18] and granted the New Republic government enough time to set up its new headquarters on the water world of Dac, home to the Quarren and Mon Calamarispecies.[7] The Myrkr survivors, in the meantime, were again reduced in number with the death of Ganner Rhysode on conquered Coruscant,[19] before being replenished by the return of Jacen Solo, whose life Rhysode had fought to save. Rar, who had been traveling with Tahiri Veila and Zekk as their temporary leader, took her small group to Dac on a refugee convoy, as she had no duties or a Jedi Master to issue her with directives. On Dac, Luke Skywalker had acted alongside the new Chief of State, the AlderaanianCal Omas, to create a High Council, with Jedi and non-Jedi representatives in equal numbers. Rar contacted Jedi Master Tresina Lobi, who held a seat on the Council, and asked the Chev woman to query Skywalker on what her next actions should be. It was decided by Omas and Skywalker that a ceremony would be held to honor the Myrkr strike team, and that the survivors would be elevated to the status of Jedi Knight.[7]

The time for the ceremony arrived, and Rar and the others who had accompanied her on the mission waited on a stage in a large auditiorium as Chief of State Omas delivered a short speech venerating the Jedi who had died. Luke Skywalker then took the podium and ushered individual Jedi forward to be knighted. Rar was the third to receive her new robes. In a short, personal address from Skywalker, Rar was told that she would always find love and friendship with the Jedi; the Jedi Master's words reduced the Twi'lek to tears. After a evening reception thrown in their honor, the new Jedi Knights journeyed to the Wookiee homeworld of Kashyyyk, where BothanadmiralTraest Kre'fey was planning for a string of minor offensives against the Yuuzhan Vong in order to improve the experience of new rookie recruits. Admiral Kre'fey had been particularly interested by the Jedi art of battle meditation and the Force Meld, which he felt could be vital in coordinating strikes against the Yuuzhan Vong. Rar was also sent to Kashyyyk for another reason; it was hoped by the Jedi Masters on the High Council that with her companions, and with the Force Meld, the Twi'lek Jedi's grief and anger could be held at bay, until the emotions were eventually overcome.[7]

Alema Rar conducted several raids alongside Kre'fey's forces, led by the admiral aboard his flagship, the Bothan Assault CruiserRalroost. Before long, Jedi Master Kyp Durron approached Kre'fey with a plan to strike at the headquarters of the Peace Brigade, a group which collaborated with the Yuuzhan Vong, on the planet Ylesia, in the Cha Raaba system. By the time of the Battle of Ylesia, Rar was a squadron commander alongside Veila and Zekk. During the battle, however, Rar, Veila, Zekk, and Durron, along with Saba Sebatyne, held their squadrons back, as the motley Peace Brigade Fleet required the strength of only one of Kre'fey's three task forces to be defeated and forced to surrender. The Twi'lek lent Jacen Solo, who was flying in the battle with his sister's Twin Suns Squadron, a measure of her strength through the Force Meld, which proved a success throughout the conflict in the Cha Raaba system. Peace City, the Ylesian capital, was stormed and the surviving members of the Ylesian Senate taken into custody, including Pwoe, a pretender Chief of State. Although the arrival of a Yuuzhan Vong fleet towards the end of the battle threatened Kre'fey's departure, the arriving hostile force was beaten back and the New Republic ships left the system with another victory to their name.[20]

The Twi'lek was later present at an emergency congregation of Jedi aboard the Mon Adapyne, a MC80B Star Cruiser attached to Admiral Kre'fey's fleet. Jedi Masters Durron and Sebatyne had received an urgent message from Luke Skywalker warning all Jedi that the Old Republic Jedi Vergere, who had protected Jacen Solo while in captivity, had gone on the run and was to be captured and detained if encountered. As Kre'fey's forces were still preparing, along with the Jedi, to initiate attacks on poorly defended Yuuzhan Vong worlds, Rar and the others could not afford to put aside time to hunt for Vergere. Strikes were conducted at Gyndine, Nal Hutta, and Wayland, all Yuuzhan Vong occupied worlds, before Kre'fey led his forces into the Deep Core. There, on the moon of Ebaq 9, a secret New Republic base had been set up. The centerpiece of an elaborate trap conceived by the famed Admiral Ackbar, the base on Ebaq 9 had been rapidly constructed, and word of its construction deliberately leaked to the Yuuzhan Vong spy network. Defending Ebaq 9 were the forces of Agamarian General Keyan Farlander, along with Twins Suns Squadron. The Yuuzhan Vong arrived, as planned, and engaged this small defense force. Jacen Solo, on the bridge of the Ralroost, was alerted by Farlander's forces, and in turn informed Kre'fey that the time was right to strike.[7]

The Bothan admiral emerged out of hyperspace and began to attack the Yuuzhan Vong fleets; Alema Rar, along with Durron, Sebatyne, Corran Horn, and the other Jedi with whom she had been fighting alongside for the past months, piloted their starfighters into the fray. The battle quickly turned in the New Republic's favor, as more fleets exited hyperspace and forced the Yuuzhan Vong warmaster, Tsavong Lah, to order a suicidal attack on the base on Ebaq 9, where Jaina Solo, Lowbacca, and the rest of Twin Suns Squadron were sheltering. The Yuuzhan Vong warmaster landed 10,000 Yuuzhan Vong warriors on the moon, and proclaimed that only Jedi could approach and land. Through the Force Meld, Skywalker informed Rar and the other Jedi present that they were going to land on Ebaq 9 and extract Solo and her pilots. In the end, it was not necessary for Rar to descend to the surface of the moon and fight against overwhelming odds. Vergere, who had been hidden aboard the Ralroost, boarded an RZ-1 A-wing interceptor and sacrificed herself to ensure that Jacen Solo, who had traveled ahead to the moon to save his sister, survived. In the process she wiped out the 10,000 warriors on the moon and, due to these actions, Jaina Solo and the rest of Twin Suns Squadron were saved. Following the successful Battle of Ebaq 9, Rar continued to pilot a starfighter alongside the New Republic military.[7]

By the final year of the Yuuzhan Vong War, Rar was fighting in Twin Suns Squadron itself, under the command of Jaina Solo. The New Republic, since reorganized into the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances, had made some progress against the Yuuzhan Vong and, in a campaign to retake key worlds and systems around Coruscant, was slowly drawing the net around the lost galactic capital. Rar flew with Twin Suns Squadron at the Third Battle of Duro, once again under the command of General Wedge Antilles. In part of a carefully prepared plan to retakeFondor, Antilles took his forces on a extended advance through the Duro system. A heavy day's fighting ensued, and more and more Yuuzhan Vong forces arrived to reinforce their beleaguered holdings in the Duro system. When the Yuuzhan Vong garrison at Fondor had departed for Duro, Antilles trapped the Yuuzhan Vong arrivals with interdiction generators, leaving Fondor undefended and ripe for the taking by General Garm Bel Iblis.[8]

Jaina Solo, Rar, and the rest of Twin Suns Squadron, along with the rest of Antilles' forces, were unaware that the attack upon Duro was a ruse, as was a task force of Duros, who broke formation and continued the battle against orders. The Duros contingent of the Galactic Alliance fleet was wiped out, casting a pall over the victory celebrations, which Rar attended. In a cantina with her squadmates, Rar was present when a Duros, Lensi, who had flown with Rogue Squadron during the battle, confronted Solo and accused her of lying to the Duros about the objectives of the battle. Solo defused the situation, reminding Lensi that everyone had suffered losses during the war. Having originally intended to resign from the military, Lensi saw reason in Solo's arguments and remained with Rogue Squadron.[8]

Following the success at Fondor, and the recapture of other important worlds such as Thyferra and Yag'Dhul, a strike was launched against the strategically important world of Bilbringi. The assault was code-named Operation Trinity and coordinated in the utmost secrecy. Under the command of General Antilles, the first of three Galactic Alliance fleets allocated to the operation entered the Bilbringi system. Contemporaneously, the HoloNet, by which the Galactic Alliance Defense Force communicated, was taken down by the Yuuzhan Vong. Alema Rar and the rest of Twin Suns Squadron were thus marooned with Antilles' fleet in the system until a signal could be sent to Admirals Kre'fey and Gilad Pellaeon requesting assistance.[8]

Although half of the Yuuzhan Vong fleet present left the system to fortify other worlds, suspecting that the strike on Bilbringi was a feint, two interdictors and several other warships remained to fight. Furthermore, the coralskippers which were sent against Twin Suns Squadron and the other starfighters began to deploy grutchins, insectoid creatures able to burrow into ships' hulls, damage their structural integrity, and even attack the crew. Rar noticed this addition to the coralskippers' arsenal, and communicated her fear to Solo, but was ignored. Before long, however, as the grutchins swarmed the Galactic Alliance capital ships, Twin Suns Squadron received orders that they were to fly over the beleaguered vessels and scorch the grutchins off the hulls with their exhaust.[8]

Although the mission was painstaking, Rar succeeded, along with the other pilots, in removing the creatures from the hull of Mon Mothma, Antilles' flagship. As the two opposing fleets neared each other, Rar's squadron received new orders from Antilles. An old Golan II Battle Station had been discovered by Antilles' crew, located in an asteroid belt towards the edges of the system. Twin Suns Squadron, depleted by a flight as Chiss-aligned pilot Jagged Fel and two others were sent to alert Admiral Kre'fey, was ordered to reconnoiter the station and investigate its military capabilities for its possible use in the battle.[8]

On departure from the main battle, however, the squadron was pursued by a large group of coralskippers. As they neared the station, Solo ordered Rar and her fellow pilots to jump to the outskirts of the system while she docked with the Golan and scouted it. When it emerged that the plan was unworkable due to the rapid approach of the coralskippers, Rar readied herself to fight once again; the Golan station's turbolaser batteries, thought inactive, then opened fire upon and destroyed the Yuuzhan Vong starfighters. Solo was hailed by the station's captain, Erli Prann, and docked inside the platform while Rar, Lowbacca and the rest of Twin Suns Squadron waited in space. Prann, however, was not interested in turning control of his prized, cloaked Golan II Battle Station over to the Galactic Alliance. Having used blasters to stun Solo, his crew fired ion cannons upon Twin Suns Squadron.[8]

Rar's fighter, along with the others, was taken into the station with tractor beams, where the Twi'lek was subdued with sonic weaponry. The X-wing starfighter the Twi'lek had been flying had its motivator removed, as did the others vehicles which made up the squadron, and the eight devices were cannibalized to fix the Golan II's broken hyperdrive. Prann had planned to take the space station out of the system entirely, but was tricked by Jaina Solo's use of the Force to change his destination to the center of the battle. When the station re-emerged from hyperspace, its crew was forced to aid Antilles' forces by destroying an interdictor, and it was subsequently boarded by Han Solo and his wife in the Millennium Falcon. Rar and the other pilots were freed by the elder Solos, and led to rescue Jaina Solo. The Twi'lek Jedi charged the Golan Station's crew with her lightsaber, who quickly surrendered, while Lowbacca dealt with Prann. The space station was then used to cover Antilles' retreat. Although the operation to retake Bilbringi had failed, the Galactic Alliance was still in a position, however tenuous, to enter into a final campaign against the Yuuzhan Vong.[8]

Sekot has agreed to fashion living ships for some of the Jedi. The process will require several days, but I promise you it will be unlike anything any of you have ever experienced.

—Magister Jabitha of Zonama Sekot, The Unifying Force

Rar continued to fly with Twin Suns Squadron, leading Three Flight as Twin Suns Nine, and she, Lowbacca, and Jaina Solo soon honed a strong Force Meld to aid them in battle together. In the final months of the war, Rar accompanied Twin Suns Squadron to the Tantara system, where a convoy of Yuuzhan Vong and Peace Brigade ships were known to be transporting a large number of Galactic Alliance members to a mass sacrifice on Coruscant, which the Yuuzhan Vong had renamed Yuuzhan'tar. On arrival in the system, Rar was quickly caught up in the Battle of Selvaris, as her squadron was tasked with preventing the Peace Brigade freighters from fleeing. Once the majority of the vessels had been immobilized, Rar joined the dogfight against the coralskippers protecting the convoy. The Twi'lek and her pilots met with rapid success; although many of the Yuuzhan Vong starfighters remained, the convoy was soon able to be boarded by Galactic Alliance troops. Twin Suns Squadron flew cover for the rescue transports while the coralskippers attacked, and managed to fight them off.[21]

As the Galactic Alliance prisoners were being transported to safety, however, Yuuzhan Vong reinforcements struck. Flying new craft, the arrivals took the starfighter squadrons by surprise. Rar joined Solo in covering the retreat of the Millennium Falcon, which successfully escaped, but in total Twin Suns Squadron lost five of its pilots. The ravaged squadron protected the surviving transports as they retreated. Traveling from the Tantara system to Kashyyyk, and thence to Dac itself, Rar's arrival, along with that of the rest of the squadron, went largely unnoticed by the public. The Galactic Alliance military was readying itself for the campaign to retake Coruscant from the Yuuzhan Vong, but the depleted Jedi Order had its own agenda. Luke Skywalker, his wife, Corran Horn, Tahiri Veila, and several others had been incommunicado on a hunt for the living world Zonama Sekot, which was thought to hold the solution to the mystery of the Yuuzhan Vong, as it had successfully defended itself against a prior invasion fifty years previously.[21]

Without the leader of the Order, or knowledge of the whereabouts or status of the missing Jedi, a meeting was convened in the apartment of Master Tresina Lobi in Coral City's Quarren Tower. Rar attended alongside a group of whichever Jedi could be mustered, and Master Kenth Hamner addressed the assembled Knights and Masters on the issue of the Skywalkers and their companions. The group discussed the idea of inserting a strike team onto Coruscant to interrogate a mysterious figure, the ProphetYu'shaa, who was leading a resistance movement against the Yuuzhan Vong rulers and was suspected to hold knowledge on the whereabouts of Zonama Sekot. The similarity of the plan to that of the Mission to Myrkr was obvious, as were the risks, and it was intended as a last resort; if Skywalker and his companions failed to make contact within a week, Hamner planned to assemble the strike team of Jedi, of which Rar would be a member.[21]

The war was moving on ahead of the Jedi, however, and as preparations were made to retake Coruscant from the Yuuzhan Vong, the new warmaster, Nas Choka, emerged as expected in the Calamari system. During the resulting Battle of Mon Calamari, Rar did not fly with Twin Suns Squadron, but instead commanded her own squadron. The battle was fierce—the Yuuzhan Vong armada arrayed its vessels in the form of a many-tentacled yammosk, constantly rotating fresh craft into attack runs and drawing damaged ships back within its center. As the fighting began to take its toll on the Galactic Alliance forces, half of Choka's flotilla suddenly departed the battle. Shortly after, as it emerged that the living planet Zonama Sekot had in fact appeared in over Coruscant itself, Choka's other ships retreated. The Galactic Alliance fleets went on the move, while much of the Jedi Order traveled to Zonama Sekot, which was for the moment unscathed in the Coruscant system.[21]

Master Skywalker greeted Rar and the other Jedi, and explained to a gathering of Jedi Masters and Knights of Zonama Sekot's importance. The consciousness of the living planet, known as Sekot, had agreed to aid the Jedi in bringing about a resolution to the Yuuzhan Vong War. While the Galactic Alliance military made the final preparations for the strike on Coruscant, Alema Rar and several other Jedi, including Kyp Durron, Corran Horn and Kyle Katarn, underwent a ceremony to create living Sekotan starhips with which to defend the planet. The Twi'lek took part in the ritual, which included a special diet, ceremonial robes, and the giving of gifts to Sekot, the spirit of the planet. Having completed the ritual elements, Rar bonded with two seed-partners, small organisms which attuned themselves to their host and went on to grow into an organic starship—similar to the organic technology of the Yuuzhan Vong vessels. The final stages of the Yuuzhan Vong War were moving swiftly, however, and it soon became clear that the leader of the Yuuzhan Vong, Supreme OverlordShimrra Jamaane, was planning to direct his forces against Zonama Sekot.[21]

This day has been years in the making. What we do from this moment forward will test our fealty to the Force in a way that the Jedi haven't been tested in more than a generation.

—Luke Skywalker, The Unifying Force

The Jentaricyborgs who constructed the Sekotan ships worked rapidly to complete the vessels, and Alema Rar was soon admiring her craft along with the other Jedi tasked with defending the living world. Upon the arrival of Master Skywalker, Rar congregated with the others present to hear a short address from the revered warrior. Skywalker assigned groups and individuals to their respective tasks; he himself planned to lead his nephew and niece against Shimrra Jamaane and his bodyguards, in order to eliminate the Yuuzhan Vong leadership. With words of encouragement, Skywalker urged the Jedi to be true to the Force, before the group separated. Shortly after Skywalker's speech and subsequent departure, Rar took to the skies and engaged the coralskippers which had attacked the living planet. The rest of the Yuuzhan Vong task force held their distance from the planet, supported by a yammosk-bearing clustership. The Twi'lek and her Jedi companions soon realized, however, that the Sekotan ships appeared reluctant to engage the coralskippers.[21]

Despite the evident confusion of the coordinating yammosk, which had thrown the coralskippers into disarray as it attempted to cope with fighting living ships, the Sekotan ships seemingly refused to fire unless attacked, or sent accurately-targeted shots deliberately wide, and instead effortlessly matched the maneuvers of the Yuuzhan Vong starfighters. When coralskippers did manage to force their way past Rar and the other Jedi, Zonama Sekot's static defenses repulsed them. The Jedi remained confused, uncertain as to the reason behind Sekot's constraints. Eventually, Yuuzhan Vong capital ships began moving in upon Zonama Sekot, only to be confronted by a Hapan task force under the command of Tenel Ka Djo. The coralskippers were swiftly overwhelmed, and Zonama Sekot's defenses began to fire salvos of energy at the Yuuzhan Vong warships. It became clear, however, that the Yuuzhan Vong were planning to make use of another tactic. A slayer ship, infected by the Galactic Alliance at Caluula with the re-developed Alpha Red pathogen, was inbound for Zonama Sekot—the Yuuzhan Vong planned to poison the world.[21]

Warmaster Nas Choka of the Yuuzhan Vong diverted larger sections of his armada, the main body of which was battling Galactic Alliance forces at the in-system world of Muscave, to attack Zonama Sekot and ensure the arrival of the vessel infected with Alpha Red on the planet's surface. The Hapan line suffered beneath the renewed onslaught, and Generals Antilles and Farlander departed Muscave and their engagement with Nas Choka to defend the planet. Sekot, too, recognized the fatal threat posed by Alpha Red and fired enormous columns of energy against the approaching Yuuzhan Vong. The Jedi fighters were overwhelmed, and Rar engaged in scores of dogfights with Yuuzhan Vong coralskippers, defending the planet's settlements and attempting to beat back the waves of attackers. Suddenly, all dozen Sekotan craft became sluggish and unresponsive. The planetary defenses stopped firing upon the Yuuzhan Vong, and waves of coralskippers and picket ships broke through to the surface. Durron and Horn believed that Alpha Red had already reached the planet and infected it; Rar and the rest of the Jedi could do nothing except leave their craft once the Sekotan vessels had landed on the planet.[21]

A hasty convention with the spokesperson of Zonama Sekot, MagisterJabitha; Cilghal; and scientist Danni Quee, as well as several others, yielded little result. Rar raised the possibility of using the Jade Shadow, berthed on the planet, to locate and destroy the infected vessel, but Cilghal reminded the Twi'lek that such an action would result in atmospheric dispersion of the pathogen. The Jedi grew frustrated, with Zekk raising possibilities of Sekot deliberately sabotaging the Jedi vessels, and Rar subtly criticizing what she saw as the planet's self-appointed role as caretaker of the Force. The group's ruminations were interrupted by Jabitha's report that Sekot wished to confer with Danni Quee. Quee set off with Jabitha and several of the Ferroan natives who inhabited the planet to speak with the world's consciousness; Rar, Durron, Horn, Cilghal and the others could only watch as the Yuuzhan Vong continued to assault the planet and bring the infected vessel ever closer. Despite the fact that Skywalker and the Solo twins had eliminated Shimrra Jamaane, and that Nas Choka had surrendered the warfleet, Zonama Sekot was clearly imperiled.[21]

Alema Rar was present when Luke Skywalker addressed the Jedi Order on Zonama Sekot at the end of the Yuuzhan Vong War.

In a last ditch effort to protect the planet, Corellian smuggler Booster Terrik advanced with his converted Imperial II-class Star DestroyerErrant Venture to Zonama Sekot, along with the other vessels which made up The Smuggler's Alliance. The smuggling vessels engaged the coralskippers, along with Galactic Alliance starfighers of Red Squadron, which assailed the infected Yuuzhan Vong ship and its escorts. Despite the best efforts of the starfighters, the infected vessel appeared unstoppable. At the last moment, Sekot unleashed a swarm of insectile ships into the skies. Using gravitic singularities to bring both Yuuzhan Vong and Galactic Alliance ships down to the planet's surface, half a dozen vessels converged upon the infected slayer ship and dragged it out of the atmosphere into space. Rar and the other Jedi watched in awe from their vantage point near their berthed starships. Quee and Jabitha returned, and the former informed the assembled Jedi that Sekot was returning the Yuuzhan Vong to their home.[21]

In disbelief, Rar and her companions watched as coralskippers were dragged from orbit by the insectoid craft towards the ground over two kilometers away. Sprinting off in the direction of the impromptu landing zone, and joined by Antilles and several Smuggler's Alliance pilots, Rar and the others arrived in time to watch the coralskippers make contact with the ground. As the Yuuzhan Vong pilots exited their craft brandishing amphistaffs, the group prepared itself for a confrontation. All were amazed as the Yuuzhan Vong biotechnology became docile and peaceful; amphistaffs slithered out of the warriors' hands, and the coralskippers appeared to become boulders, joined with the ground. It was later revealed by Danni Quee and Sekot that the living planet was a seed of the ancestral homeworld of the Yuuzhan Vong—the warfaring species had returned home, and the conflict which had ravaged the galaxy since the Yuuzhan Vong had launched their invasion was over.[21]

In the weeks following the Sekot Accords which dealt with the resolution of the immediate problems engendered by the end of the Yuuzhan Vong War, the Jedi remained on Zonama Sekot in the Coruscant system. The Yuuzhan Vong, stripped of their weapons, were to be transported to the living world in the approaching days to live out their existence peacefully in symbiosis with the planet. The Jedi were thanked for their aid by Chief of State Cal Omas, and Master Skywalker called for a convocation of the Order on Zonama Sekot. Once the surviving members of the Order had flocked to the living world, Skywalker gave everyone a day to catch up before summoning all present to the same glade where Rar had witnessed the first coralskippers landing.[21]

Once all were assembled, Skywalker delivered an address concerning the role of the Jedi and their relationship with the Force. He stated that rather than put all efforts into aiding the Galactic Alliance in its rebuilding process, or searching for a new location for the Jedi headquarters, the Jedi should look towards exploring the Unifying Force, the will of the Force and its infinite complexities. Rar, along with all others present, was encouraged to forestall the rise of darkness and to fight injustice, which Skywalker believed was the desire of the Force. He also urged the order to consider the future without surrendering themselves to it totally, and to aid others on that path. Four days following the convocation, Rar left the living world, before it took the Yuuzhan Vong to the Unknown Regions.[21] The Yuuzhan Vong War left scars on both the galaxy and Alema Rar which never faded; grief over her sister's death aboard the Nebula Chaser and the other losses of the war plagued the Twi'lek, leading to a manisfestation of internal darkness which failed to abate following the end of the conflict.[9]

For six years, the galaxy remained at relative peace. The Reconstruction Authority made advances, as did the rest of the galaxy, in restoring—to an extent—the damage wrought by the Yuuzhan Vong War. Alema Rar, however, continued to suffer the grief for her sister's death, and anger maintained a hold over her actions. Other events, now distant, also held sway over the Twi'lek Jedi Knight. When on Myrkr, years previously, the Jedi had formed their tight-knit Force Meld to aid their survival, they had unwittingly created a mental bond between themselves so strong that it had failed to fade over time. After the war, whenever members of the strike team had remained in close proximity with one another, they experienced mood swings, and found themselves sharing emotions and feelings. Cilghal, as the Jedi order's principal healer, diagnosed the phenomenon as a delayed reaction to the Myrkr battle meld; the mental boundaries between the survivors had been eroded by the strength of the meld, and they had thus begun to share emotions. This made close interaction difficult, and by and large the survivors attempted to move on with their lives.[9]

Tenel Ka Djo still remained the Hapan Queen Mother, Jacen Solo had vanished on a five year journey to explore the Force, and Tekli and Tahiri spent the years on Zonama Sekot. For Rar, as with Jaina Solo, Zekk, Lowbacca and Tesar, moving on was difficult. The Jedi Knight carried out an extensive intelligence-gathering mission on the Bothans, who had since the death of Chief of State Borsk Fey'lya during the Fall of Coruscant wished to enact speciecide against the Yuuzhan Vong. A Bothan politician, Reh'mwa, formed a faction of fundamentalists known as the True Victory Party in order to hunt down Zonama Sekot and eliminate the species. By 35 ABY, Rar had discovered that Reh'mwa and his followers had intelligence pertaining to the living planet's location and were provisioning a Star Destroyer, the Avengeance, for an attack on the exiled Yuuzhan Vong. The Twi'lek duly issued a report to the Jedi High Council.[9]

Unbeknownst to Alema Rar or the other Myrkr team survivors, another member of the strike force, the long lost Raynar Thul, had survived his mid-mission abduction by Lomi Plo and Welk. From the distant Unknown Regions, Thul exerted his presence in the Force, summoning the other strike team survivors to him. At first, the call was vague and unclear, but as the weeks went by, it became more compelling, until one by one the survivors abandoned their duties and left for the Unknown Regions to discover the truth behind the mysterious summons. Before leaving, the Jedi had informed Luke Skywalker and the other Jedi Masters that they were hearing the call through the Force, but they gave no explanation for their sudden departure. Rar abandoned her investigation into the activities of the True Victory Party and met with Lowbacca, Zekk, Jaina Solo and Tesar. Together the five Jedi travelled to an asteroid colony in the Unknown Regions. There, they were received by the Lizil, a nest of insectoid creatures belonging to the Killik species, a race thought rendered extinct millennia before. The Jedi were then met by a group of guards from the Unu nest, the prime Killik nest, of which Raynar Thul was the overall leader. A day after their arrival at the asteroid colony, the Jedi group left.[9]

The situation became clear; the Killiks were a species of insects who were organized by a hive mind. There were hundreds of different nests, which together made up The Colony, headed by Raynar Thul, who had survived the crash of the Tachyon Flier and been absorbed into the Killik hive mind. Prolonged exposure to Killiks resulted in decreased individuality due to the power of the hive mind. All those who became Joiners in this way shared a telepathic connection, thoughts, and emotions, similar to the Myrkr battle meld. The Killiks had been expanding ever since the arrival of Raynar Thul, who had taught them the principles of healing and caring for one another. Before long, Killik expansionism had encroached upon the border of the Chiss Ascendancy, and a conflict had erupted. Raynar Thul had recruited his old friends for aid in the war against the Chiss, who were fiercely defending their territories, as they were aware of the subversive power of the Killik hive mind. The Jedi, who rapidly became Joiners, were eager to help the insectoid race defend themselves against what they viewed as Chiss aggression. Their numbers were bolstered by the arrival of Tekli and Tahiri Veila, who had travelled from Zonama Sekot.[9]

Why did Alema join the Gorog, while everyone else joined the Taat?""Because of Numa. When Numa was killed, Alema turned a lot of her anger inward—and anger has always been fertile ground for the likes of Lomi Plo.

—Cilghal and Luke Skywalker, Dark Nest I: The Joiner King

The conflict's flashpoint was in the Gyuel system, where a number of Killik colonies had been constructed on the moons of Qoribu, the system's gas giant. The Jedi were dispatched to Jwlio, one of Qoribu's moons, where the Taat nest was located. For Rar, however, the experience of living among the Killiks was different to that of her companions. Lomi Plo and Welk had similarly survived the crash of the Tachyon Flier, and had been subsumed into the Killik hive mind along with Raynar Thul. Unlike Thul, who had used his Jedi knowledge to impart the wisdom of care and healing upon the insectoid race, Plo and Welk had only wished for survival at all costs. Influencing the Killiks to aid her, and creating a sense that she and Welk were on no account to be discovered, Plo initiated the construction of the Gorog, a secretive, hidden nest of Killiks dedicated to preserving Plo and implementing her will. The rest of the Killiks, including Thul, were kept unaware of the Gorog; Plo, who essentially controlled the Killik hive mind, was able to censor the nest's existence from the rest of the species. The Gorog acted as the "unconcious" part of the Killik hive mind, influencing its decisions without its knowledge.[9]

As a nest ruled through the dark side of the Force, the Gorog saw in Alema Rar the emotions which would enable it to recruit the Jedi Knight as its agent. Lomi Plo set out to corrupt the Twi'lek, through her anger and grief over her sister's death. Under the powerful influence of the hive mind, Rar was, as with her companions, unable to resist. The Twi'lek's long harboring of the raw emotions engendered by her sister's death proved the cause for her descent into the dark side of the Force, and Lomi Plo became the master of Alema Rar. To some extent, this took place without Rar's knowledge. The Twi'lek was, for the moment, not a direct, knowing agent of the Gorog nest, but its tool. Rar had a compulsion to defend the Killik nests, and especially Gorog, at all costs. On the frontlines at Jwlio, Rar continued to fight off the Chiss alongside her companions. Defense against the Chiss was Plo's pressing objective; in the long run, however, the leader of the Gorog wished to expand the Killiks across the galaxy, subsuming all sentient life to her will as Joiners, thus achieving galactic dominance.[9]

The Taat nest, which was suffering greatly under the Chiss offensive, hosted the Jedi lavishly. Despite the regular attacks by Chiss defoliators, which were used to deliver chemical payloads to destroy vegetation on the moon, the nest was strident in its desire to provide food to its team of Jedi defenders. The Jedi increasingly shared senses and emotions as the Joining process continued; Rar, along with Solo and Zekk, felt welcomed by the Joining process and the sense of inclusion in a greater whole. They soon discovered that whenever they talked about or thought of a certain food, the Taat would endeavor to supply it. Rar discovered that the others could detect her feelings when she flirted with a Rodian, to the revulsion of her companions. The mental joining was noticeable chiefly during engagements against the Chiss, when the Jedi group came close to sharing minds entirely. One meal, Jaina Solo informed the group that another Myrkr survivor, Jacen Solo, was en route to Jwlio, having finished his five year journey of discovery.[9]

Rar, who was attracted to Jacen, was especially eager to find out when the wandering Jedi would be arriving. The news was soon followed by the approach of another task force of Chiss defoliators. Along with the Taat dartships—small, primitive craft piloted by lone Killiks—Rar and the other Jedi took to their StealthX Jedi starfighters and prepared to defend against the Chiss. Four defoliators, each with an escort of four Nssis-class Clawcraft, advanced upon Jwlio, Ruu and Zvbo; the latter two moons were home to the Saras and Alaala nests. As usual, the Jedi set out to disable the defoliators. Rar, on the other hand, wanted to attack and destroy the invading craft in order to teach the Chiss a lesson. Outright aggression against the Chiss was sure to provoke a fullscale war, however, and Solo and Zekk counselled strongly against such action.[9]

Forming a trio with Zekk and Lowbacca, while the Saras dartships attacked one defoliator and the other Jedi targeted the others, Rar quickly disabled the vessels as they approached the Killik nests. It was not long before the Jedi realized that they had been drawn into a trap. A Chiss Victory-class Star Destroyer, previously cloaked, revealed itself, blocking the Jedi group's return to Jwlio and the Taat nest. The Star Destroyer disgorged its complement of starfighters and targeted the Jedi in their StealthXs with tractor beams. Lowbacca's craft was instantly locked onto by one of the tractor beams, and clawcraft began swarming Jacen Solo and Tahiri Veila, forcing them towards the Chiss vessel. Killik dartships attempted to defend the beleaguered Jedi, but it was not until Rar and Zekk began attacking the clawcraft so that Solo and Veila could escape. Rather than subsequently disengage, however, the vengeful Twi'lek pressed the attack, eliminating three clawcraft in moments.[9]

Rar's actions immediately caused an explosion of anger and disgust from her companions, but the Rutian believed that she was justified in what she was doing—warning the Chiss of the consequences. The Taat dartships soon followed Rar's lead, immolating themselves against the clawcraft and rapidly escalating the conflict. In retaliation, the Star Destroyer locked on to Rar, Zekk, Jacen Solo and Veila with a tractor beam, and began to draw them towards its hangar bays. Tesar Sebatyne and Jaina Solo flew in to attack the Star Destroyer, but were unable to eliminate the tractor beam station. Solo ordered the Jedi to prepare to eject from their craft, but before this became necessary for Rar, Killik reinforcements arrived in the form of a wave of hundreds of Mueum nest dartships which dove in a concentrated wedge into the upper deck of the capital ship. The force of the Mueum assault was so powerful that the Star Destroyer rapidly disintegrated, and the tractor beams failed. During the last stages of the fight, Lowbacca had ejected from his StealthX to spare himself from capture. The Chiss clawcraft that remained were able to prevent Rar and the other Jedi from retrieving the Wookiee, and so the group returned to Jwlio in order to refuel and rearm, before setting off to mount their rescue mission.[9]

What, exactly, are you doing here?""We're trying to prevent a war. Isn't that what Jedi are supposed to do?

—Mara Jade Skywalker and Alema Rar, Dark Nest I: The Joiner King

Interference from the Jedi Order, so suddenly abandoned by the Jedi group, interrupted this plan of action. Jedi Masters Luke and Mara Jade Skywalker and Saba Sebatyne, along with Han and Leia Organa Solo, arrived in the Gyuel system to investigate the activities of Rar and the other missing Jedi Knights. Testimony to her fear of her plans being derailed by this unwanted intrusion, Lomi Plo directed a number of Gorog dartships against the Jade Shadow and the Millennium Falcon, along with their escort vessel, the XR808g, as the three craft entered the system. Through Skywalker's advanced Force powers, the incoming Skywalkers and Solos were able to survive, and met the group of Jedi in a hangar bay of the Taat nest, where Rar and her companions were waiting for their own craft to be refueled and rearmed. Mara Jade Skywalker was the first of the senior Jedi to approach the group; the tense atmosphere was defused as familiar greetings occurred and the youthful Ben Skywalker met with his cousins.[9]

It was not long, however, before Mara Jade Skywalker confronted the Jedi group, berating them for their dereliction of duty and demanding to know what their objectives were in Killik space. Rar contended that she and her fellow Jedi were trying to put an end to hostilities between the Chiss and the Killiks, and she was backed up by the rest of her companions. In an attempt to prove the justification behind their actions, Jaina Solo asked the senior Jedi and the Solos to follow the group to the Taat infirmary, where wounded Chiss and Killiks alike were being treated for their injuries. The Skywalkers and Solos were less than impressed; they understood that the Chiss were simply becoming Joiners. In bitter tones, Rar denounced Chiss aggression. She and her fellow Jedi then showed their temporary guests the Killik nursery, and explained the predicament of the Gyuel system nests; the Killiks did not wish to die, and they could not leave the system without vast starships to transport them.[9]

Unconvinced, Luke Skywalker asked for the return of the Jedi to Galactic Alliance space, citing their lack of impartiality as self-defeating in preventing conflict. The Jedi Master's request encouraged Rar to speak out and claim that the Jedi were not the servants of the Galactic Alliance, but Skywalker was adamant. As it became clear that the Solos also believed that Rar and the others had only exacerbated the situation, the Twi'lek became vocally angry. Nevertheless, Veila, Zekk, Tesar Sebatyne, Tekli, and Jacen Solo agreed to leave Killik space, and Rar had little choice but to acquiesce. Before departure, however the two generations of Jedi did made it clear that they would work together to retrieve Lowbacca.[9]

Alema Rar flew alongside Jaina Solo, Zekk, and Saba Sebatyne as a quartet of escorts for the Millennium Falcon, which was to lead the search and rescue effort. Aboard the light freighter, which lacked stealth capabilities but possessed the space to transport an adult male Wookiee, Organa Solo negotiated with the Chiss search craft to allow the Millennium Falcon to join their search pattern. Meanwhile, Rar and the escorts sent reassurance to the stranded Lowbacca through the Force, encouraging him that he would soon be found and recovered. The Solos soon discerned that they were being led into a setup, as the Chiss were eager to capture more of the "rogue Jedi" they blamed for escalating the border conflict. Jaina Solo showed no signs of caring, and led the four StealthXs closer toward Lowbacca's position. The Wookiee, fearful that his friends would be captured, activated his emergency beacon, revealing his position to the Chiss and allowing himself to be apprehended.[9]

The rescue mission was called off, and Rar returned with the others to the Taat nest on Jwlio, leaving Lowbacca in the hands of the Chiss commander, who was revealed to be none other than Jagged Fel, Rar's former squadmate during the Yuuzhan Vong War. On the return of the rescue mission's craft to Jwlio, Rar and the other Joiners returned to their life among the Killiks. Meanwhile, Gorog stepped up its attacks on the Skywalkers and Solos. A Gorog assassin bug was sent after the Skywalker family on the Jade Shadow, and Welk fought Saba Sebatyne in a vicious lightsaber duel which left both participants severely injured. On the morning before the discovery of Sebatyne’s serious injuries, Rar, Zekk, and Jaina Solo were taking part in the Little Dawn Rumble, a communal Killik dance. The dance was interrupted by the news that Sebatyne had been wounded. The Jedi and the Solos rushed to the infirmary, where the gravely injured Sebatyne warned them of the assassins, and of Welk's survival. Skepticism abounded among the Killiks and the Joiners. The Solos prepared to return with Sebatyne to Galactic Alliance space; Rar questioned the existence of assassins, and the irate Barabel hurled Welk's severed arm into her chest with the Force in reply.[9]

The Solos demanded that the younger Jedi leave with them, but Zekk and Jaina refused, claiming that they were not leaving without Lowbacca, and that they would investigate the attack on Sebatyne. Organa Solo pledged to open negotiations with the Chiss, but Rar claimed that the defoliators would have wreaked greater damage on the Gyuel system nests by that point. With the argument at a standstill, the Solos decided to return without the intractable young Jedi. With Lomi Plo and the Gorog having decided that it was time for another attempt on the Solos’ lives, concurrently with its attack on the Jade Shadow, Rar was dispatched to eliminate the couple, along with Sebatyne, C-3PO, and the Noghri bodyguards. To the surprise of Zekk and all three Solos, Rar therefore informed them that she would be accompanying the Solos and their companions aboard the Millennium Falcon, under the pretense of acting as a guide.[9]

The Twi'lek joined the Solos on the Millennium Falcon and set off from Jwlio, with a comatose Master Sebatyne on board. Rar's objective was to ensure that the Solos would no longer interfere in Lomi Plo's plans, although the Twi'lek was still unstable, partially unaware as to why she being directed to carry out the task. Having checked in on the Barabel, Rar went forward with Organa Solo to the galley, where the older woman prepared a mug of hot chocolate. To Rar's consternation, Organa Solo did not waste much time before asking her why she had accompanied them on the Millennium Falcon during its departure from Killik space. The Twi'lek tried to dodge the subject, but wound up discussing the hive mind and how it made her feel, heightening Organa Solo's concerns that the Jedi Knight was a fully-fledged Joiner. Rar was quizzed by the older woman on the Gorog attacks on the Skywalkers and the Solos, and latterly on Master Sebatyne, but the Twi'lek denied any knowledge. Her frequent attempts to change the subject were parried by Organa Solo, who questioned Rar persistently on Welk, why the Killiks would attack Sebatyne or the Solos, and whether or not both Dark Jedi—Lomi Plo and Welk—had survived the crash of the Tachyon Flier.[9]

Rar grew disorientated as she attempted to satisfy Organa Solo with a working truth. Eventually, the Twi'lek snapped at the older woman, losing control and shouting that the Solos would have nothing to fear so long as they did not interfere with Lomi Plo's plans, although she only referred to Gorog obliquely. The departure of the Solos from Colony space, however, was not security enough for Plo; if the Solos reported the Gorog attack on Sebatyne to Skywalker, Plo felt that her scheme would come under threat. Therefore the Twi'lek was instructed to sabotage the Millennium Falcon and rid the Gorog nest of the Solos once and for all. While the light freighter was in hyperspace, Rar broke a diverter valve on one of hyperdrive coolant lines and duplicated the readings from the intact coolant line, allowing the hyperdrive to overheat without any of the usual alarms being sounded. The Millennium Falcon exited hyperspace in Colony space, where a swarm of Gorog dartships began to converge on the light freighter. To Rar's surprise, Han Solo quickly shut down the faulty coolant line and demanded another jump into hyperspace. The Twi'lek confronted Solo and claimed that the dartships, which she knew to be Gorog craft, would bring aid to the Millennium Falcon. Solo tersely ignored Rar and the light freighter made the jump to lightspeed at lower power.[9]

With her first plan having failed, Rar suggested to Solo that they check on the wounded Master Sebatyne, in an attempt to get him alone, away from his wife. Thwarting Rar's plans, the Human went to the cockpit to help Organa Solo pilot the vessel. Further complications arose when the Millennium Falcon was obstructed in hyperspace by a nebula; usually, it was a simple method of disengaging the hyperdrive and avoiding the nebula, but Rar's sabotage ensured that this could not take place. The light freighter's destruction was soon imminent; fortunately for its occupants, Organa Solo spun the Millennium Falcon around in hyperspace and fired the sublight engines. Time and space were briefly distorted, before the freighter dropped out of hyperspace, dragged out by the mass shadow of an unknown planet. Solo managed a landing, and Rar and Organa Solo left the Millennium Falcon in full hazmat gear to drain out the coolant into collection buckets. Jae Juun, the Sullustan who had been acting as the Solos' guide, brought out Rar's utility belt with her lightsaber attached; the Twi'lek and Organa Solo then set about draining the coolant from the freighter into the buckets.[9]

When Solo made it clear that they were not to spill any of the coolant, Rar seized the opportunity to maroon the Solos on the unknown planet, out of the way of possible interference in Lomi Plo's plans. She snapped a handle on one of the buckets, spilling eighty liters of coolant on the ground, and claimed that it was an accident. To her shock, she was immediately forced to dodge a wave of stun blasts from the Solos' two Noghri bodyguards, Cakhmaim and Meewalh. She evaded the follow-up blasts and ignited her lightsaber, protesting her innocence. The Solos, however, had discerned the Twi'lek's deception, and as Organa Solo ignited her own blade, Rar realized she had to incapacitate some of her enemies. Abandoning all pretense that she was not attempting to end the threat posed by the Solos to Plo's expansionism, she claimed they had betrayed the Colony.[9]

In the resulting skirmish, Rar was able to best Meewalh before being placed at the mercy of Cakhmaim. An order from Organa Solo prevented Cakhmaim from killing Rar, and the Twi'lek used the momentary distraction to hurl the Noghri away with the Force and attack Organa Solo. The two women talked briefly until Organa Solo realized that the Twi'lek was, through her allegiance to the Gorog nest, a fully fledged enemy of the Jedi Order, at which point the combatants engaged each other again. As the more skilful fighter, Rar soon had Organa Solo on the defensive, but was tricked by the Human woman and her husband, who lured her under the discharge point for the aft escape pod. From within the cockpit, Han Solo then fired the pod, blowing the discharge hatch into the Twi'lek and knocking her down. Rar was then tranquilized by Organa Solo and taken back on board the freighter.[9]

You saw this coming, didn't you?""Not this—not Gorog. But I knew Alema would fall.

—Jacen Solo and Luke Skywalker, Dark Nest I: The Joiner King

Drugged and heavily bound in one of the light freighter's cargo holds, the unconscious Twi'lek was watched over by Meewalh and Cakhmaim at all times on the journey back to Ossus. Rar talked in her sleep during the journey, alluding to her close ties with the Gorog nest to her captors by referring in her sleep to the Night Herald—a position held by Welk. When the Millennium Falcon arrived on Ossus, the Twi'lek was taken to the Jedi Academy. There, drugged with tranqarest, restrained by nylasteel bonds, and linked to diagnostics systems which would monitor her brain activity, Rar was incacerated alongside a Gorog assassin bug which had been incapacitated on the Jade Shadow by Mara Jade Skywalker. It was soon discovered by Cilghal that Rar's limbic system and and hypothalamus—two areas of her brain which regulated emotional activity—were linked with that of the Gorog assassin, delivering empirical proof to the Jedi order that the Twi'lek was a Gorog Joiner.[9]

Cilghal then initiated an experiment, torturing the Gorog assassin and verifying that Rar felt the same sensations. The other Jedi, linked with the Taat, did not experience the same sensations, but became uncomfortable, which suggested to Cilghal that the Gorog nest was influencing them on an unconscious level. Together, Cilghal and Skywalker discerned the truth behind the Colony and behind what they saw as the malign influence being exerted by Lomi Plo and Welk over the Killiks. Shortly after the experiment, Rar regained consciousness and was able to make her escape. She fled the Jedi Academy with the Gorog assassin bug, stealing a skiff from the complex's repair hangar and some supplies. In the stolen vessel, Rar raced away from Ossus, cutting through the spaceport's primary approach lane in her haste.[9]

The Twi'lek was pursued by two Jedi pilots in XJ3 X-wing starfighters; just prior to her escape into hyperspace, she began evasive maneuvers, which proved unnecessary as the skiff made the jump to lightspeed without being disabled by its pursuers. The Twi'lek raced back to the Gyuel system and the Gorog headquarters on the moon of Kr. There, the Dark Nest Crisis had escalated into open war, with Jacen Solo having enlisted the support of Tenel Ka Djo and a Hapan warfleet to defend the Killiks against the Chiss, who had brought a large invasion fleet into the system. As Rar raced to Kr and safety, and to join Lomi Plo and Welk in the defense of the Gorog nest against any intrusion, the Second Battle of Qoribu began.[9]

Kr soon became the focus of the conflict with the Chiss and Hapan fleets battling over the surface of the icy moon. The approach of Jedi Masters Luke and Mara Jade Skywalker, along with several other leading members of the Order, as well as the Solos, proved that Rar had been tracked to Kr. Jade Skywalker fired a pair of proton torpedoes into the Gorog nest's hangar, into which the Twi'lek fled. Rar survived the explosion and headed deeper into the nest. Waves of Gorog soldiers were sent against the two Jedi Masters, who landed in their StealthXs and followed the Twi'lek's course towards the center of the moon. Eventually, once the Skywalkers had made their way to where black membrosia, the source of nourishment for the Gorog, was being created, Rar revealed herself and announced that the two Jedi Masters would not be allowed to leave the moon. Summoning a horde of Gorog warriors, the Twi'lek sprung her trap and prepared to engage the Skywalkers.[9]

As her opponents proved themselves more than capable of withstanding the masses of warriors, Rar continued to provide support, although when Luke Skywalker shielded himself from incoming electrobolt rifle fire with the body of a membrosia giver, the Twi'lek ignited her lightsaber and slashed the Gorog in half. Before long, Skywalker was coming after her; despite Rar's retreat up a tunnel, she was soon forced to turn and face the Jedi Master. Skywalker offered clemency, giving Rar the opportunity to return to the Jedi. In response, the Twi'lek attacked the Jedi Master furiously. Outmatched, she was easily held at bay while Skywalker urged her to reconsider her actions and to think of her long dead sister and how Numa would perceive Rar's current actions. This approach incensed Rar further, and she launched herself at Skywalker, swearing and slashing wildly at him with her lightsaber. Skywalker batted the Twi'lek's blade aside, dragged Rar towards him with the Force, and cleaved down into her left shoulder with his own weapon. Instantly, Rar lost the use of her sword arm. Skywalker appropriated her lightsaber and headed back to aid his wife, while Rar retreated to safety.[9]

It was not long before the Jedi Masters were once again pursuing the Twi'lek. Rar prepared herself, lying in wait in the nest's innermost chamber, where Lomi Plo, Welk and the Gorog larvae were present, with a rifle. When the Skywalkers entered the chamber, Rar readied herself to shoot Mara Jade Skywalker, but the older woman fired Force lightning at the Twi'lek, jarring her aim and rendering her unconscious for a brief moment. Welk came forward to engage the Jedi Masters openly, while Lomi Plo remained unseen and hidden, providing support through the Force and depleting the power of the Jedi Masters' weapons when she was able. Welk did not last long against Luke Skywalker and was killed by the veteran Jedi Master. Alema Rar and Lomi Plo escaped, leaving Kr in the hands of the Jedi.[9]

Come, Master Skywalker. We are only asking that you leave Gorog alone. Do that, and each week we will feed you one of the access codes you need to truly know your mother.

—Alema Rar, to Luke Skywalker, Dark Nest II: The Unseen Queen

Night Herald of the Gorog.

In the aftermath of the conflict on Kr, the Jedi Order attempted to explain to Raynar Thul that Lomi Plo and the Gorog nest were exerting influence over the Killiks. Despite the evidence of Gorog aggression on the moon, Thul remained prone to Plo's influence and did not accept the existence of what the Jedi were referring to as the "Dark Nest". As a compromise, Leia Organa Solo informed Thul of the planets the Millennium Falcon had discovered when Rar's sabotage had forced them from hyperspace.[9] The Killik Qoribu nests were loaded into the vessels of the Hapan fleet and taken to what became known as the Woteba system, inside the Utegetu Nebula, in accordance with the Qoribu Truce.[9] There, fourteen planets were given to the Killiks in return for their pledge to halt expansion into the Chiss Ascendancy.[6] Lomi Plo's designs had not come to fruition, however, and together with Alema Rar, whom she pronounced the second Night Herald of the Gorog, she continued to further her plans for galactic domination. The Gorog hive took possession of a fifteenth planet near the Tusken's Eye, a corona created by a star further within the nebula.[6]

In truth, Lomi Plo was a Sith Master, a fact of which Rar never became aware during her training under the human woman.[10] Plo taught the fallen Twi'lek Jedi several advanced Force techniques to enable her to become a capable agent. Rar soon learnt to develop a slippery presence in the Force, allowing her to conceal herself and remove herself from the memories of those whom she encountered.[6][4] She replaced the lightsaber she had lost to Luke Skywalker on Kr with a weapon with a dark blue blade. Her left shoulder, mangled by Skywalker's blade, gave the Twi'lek a lopsided posture, and her left arm became withered and useless. Nevertheless, Rar was resolute in her opposition to her former friends and comrades in the Jedi Order. She served only the Gorog and Lomi Plo.[6]

The secretive hive set about destabilizing the Qoribu Truce which had ended the Dark Nest Crisis, spreading its addictive black membrosia among the insect species of the Galactic Alliance and bringing disorder and chaos to shipping, trade, and economies across the galaxy. In doing so, the Galactic Alliance turned against the Killiks, leaving the Chiss to deal with the insectoid species. This was in accordance with Lomi Plo's plans, as a second war with the Chiss, without Jedi or Galactic Alliance interference, would enable her to conquer the Ascendancy. Piracy, sponsored by the Gorog, became rife, and many insect species such as the Fefze, the Flakax, the Geonosians, the Yam'rii, the Snutibs, S'krrrs, Verpine, and Vratix, observed many of their number becoming Joiners.[6]

Lomi Plo did not plan to remain in the Woteba system, especially once it had been discovered that the planets making up the system had an ancient environmental defense system which prevented any changes from occurring in their ecosystems. A corrosive substance made of organic nanotechnology, the so-called "Fizz" attacked the Killiks and their structures. Plo persuaded Thul and the Killiks to build giant nest ships, in which the entire species could depart the Woteba system and invade the Chiss Ascendancy, initiating Plo's second attempt at galactic domination. Construction on the nest ships began, continuing throughout the year. Material was supplied by the pirates harbored by the Killiks and through deals Plo's agents brokered with other intermediaries. When, a year after the Dark Nest Crisis had concluded, the Skywalkers and Solos returned to Woteba to confer with Raynar Thul about the Fizz, Alema Rar was on hand to observe them. At the Saras hive on Woteba, where the Millennium Falcon was docked, Rar's foes prepared to leave following their discussion with Thul.[6]

Thul had demanded that the Solos and Skywalkers exit Colony space, and both Luke Skywalker's wife and Han Solo's departed on the light freighter. Lomi Plo, for her part, had decided that it was necessary to prevent the Jedi from interfering once again in her affairs, and had devised a scheme, planning to turn Luke Skywalker against his wife and incapacitate the Order's leadership at the highest level. The Gorog hive possessed some knowledge of the inner workings of the R2-series astromech droid; Luke Skywalker was the owner of such a droid, R2-D2,[6] which had in turn been the property of Anakin Skywalker, the young Jedi Knight who had fallen to the dark side at the birth of the Galactic Empire and become Darth Vader.[22] R2-D2 held recordings of the last days of Anakin Skywalker's life before his climactic duel on Mustafar with Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, a duel that had cost him his wife, Padmé Amidala, along with several of his limbs. Plo recognized that the recordings would be of great interest to Skywalker, and that leverage could be gained over the Jedi Master by means of delivery of the codes.[6]

Furthermore, Plo planned to use Mara Jade Skywalker's past against her husband[6]—before renouncing the Galactic Empire and the dark side, Jade Skywalker had been an Emperor's Hand, one of a body of select servants to EmperorPalpatine.[23] Alema Rar was briefed on the plan; Skywalker would be informed that the Gorog hive held the key to the knowledge locked away in R2-D2, and that Mara Jade Skywalker had possibly been involved in circumstances surrounding Padmé Amidala's death—a lie, but given some credibility by Jade Skywalker's longstanding reluctance to discuss her past. Plo planned for doubt to be sowed in Luke Skywalker's mind, rendering him a weakened opponent. Raynar Thul had already been influenced into believing that Welk had in fact been Beda Ies, the wife of Daxar Ies, an accountant and a target of Jade Skywalker's in the Imperial era, and a Gorog Joiner. Thul therefore shared this "knowledge" with Skywalker and his wife, prompting a small measure of doubt between the couple over Daxar Ies. It was up to Rar to exacerbate this development.[6]

With her orders clear, the Twi'lek Dark Jedi remained hidden under an old Gallofree Star Barge while Luke Skywalker and Han Solo made preparations to leave Woteba. Despite being cloaked with the Force, Rar's presence was detected by Skywalker. When she knew she had been noticed, Rar emerged from the shadows. By this time, Solo had left the hangar—Rar talked briefly with Skywalker, rebuffing his questions concerning her return to the Jedi Order and denying the survival of Welk and Lomi Plo. The Twi'lek stuck to the same story of Welk being Beda Ies, but Skywalker refuted it and confronted Rar on her fall to the dark side and departure from the Jedi Order. He blamed her for Kr, and offered redemption, but as Rar was responding she was stunned from behind by Han Solo and disarmed. When she came to, she was quick to remind the pair that she had control over all the Killiks present. Skywalker continued to remind Rar that she was in mental bondage to the Gorog, and that she could fight the Joining process.[6]

Rar scornfully informed the Jedi Master that he placed too much faith in others, before telling him that Daxar Ies had not been, as Mara Jade Skywalker had claimed, one of the Emperor's accountants, but actually the designer of the Intellex Fourdroid brain—the model used by the R2-series astromech droid. Despite Solo's skepticism, Skywalker granted Rar a hearing, and the Twi'lek explained that she could reveal the identity of the Jedi Master's mother via the codes she possessed. She issued a code to R2-D2, and the droid played a holorecording of Anakin Skywalker and Padmé Amidala together in the latter's apartment,[6] days before the enaction of Order 66 and the near-extinction of the Jedi order.[22]

Once the holorecording had concluded, Rar suggested that she could enable more recordings to be viewed—if Skywalker refrained from interfering in the affairs of the Gorog hive. The Jedi Master was surprised that the Twi'lek and her master would think that he would agree to such a compromise, but when Solo told Rar that they were not interested in investigating Gorog, the Dark Jedi allowed the two men to leave. When Rar asked for her lightsaber, she was angered when Skywalker removed the crystal and crushed it with the Force before handing the useless weapon back to her. Despite her outrage, the Twi'lek let them go and had a new crystal installed in the lightsaber within the next couple of days.[6]

We don't know what Mara is trying to hide from you, but we hope it has nothing to do with your mother's death. It would be very sad if Daxar Ies was not her only victim.

—Alema Rar, to Luke Skywalker, Dark Nest II: The Unseen Queen

Around the same time as Rar's meeting with Skywalker, Gorog launched an assassination attempt on Queen Mother Tenel Ka Djo of Hapes, Rar's former companion during the Yuuzhan Vong War. Lomi Plo had resented the interference of the Hapan Queen Mother in the previous year and decided to rid herself of the royal and aid Ta'a Chume, Djo's grandmother, in recovering the throne. The Gorog would also attain navicomputer technology for the giant nest ships, for which the pirates and smugglers enrolled by Plo were also attaining material across the galaxy. The Killiks attacking Djo were repulsed by Jacen Solo, who was present on Hapes. From Ta'a Chume, however, Gorog had learned of the existence of Allana—the Force-sensitive child of Djo and Solo. This information was subsequently passed on to Alema Rar through the telepathic link shared by the hive, and she became one of the few in the galaxy to learn of the secret of Allana's parentage.[6]

To threaten the rise of the Killiks, Chief of State Cal Omas dispatched the Galactic Alliance Fifth Fleet, under the command of Bothan Admiral Nek Bwua'tu, to blockade the Utegetu Nebula, securing the Murgo Choke, the only exit out of the nebula, and one the Killiks would be forced to take.[6] Lomi Plo soon devised a scheme to incapacitate the fleet, flooding it with synthetic, Killik-produced replica models and busts of vehicles and individuals from the Rebel Alliance's military past. Inside the models were droves of Gorog assassin bugs, ready to burst out and eliminate the crews of the vessels when the time came. Meanwhile, pirates and smugglers employed by Gorog continued to obtain resources illegally to power the nest ships. One such band of criminals, smuggling reactor fuel and led by Gorog Killiks, was discovered on Woteba by Luke Skywalker and Han Solo, who had remained on the planet to investigate the Fizz.[6]

When Solo and Skywalker brought their findings to Raynar Thul, informing the leader of the Killiks that the Gorog hive was actively smuggling reactor fuel, Thul was initially swayed, especially once presented with a holorecording of the event provided by R2-D2. Alema Rar quickly made her way to the meeting and remained cloaked in the Force, while she convinced Thul through the hive mind that the Jedi, not the Gorog hive, had brought the reactor fuel to Woteba, and that he was being deceived. The Killik leader ordered his guards to converge on Solo and Skywalker, but the Jedi Master realized that Rar was present, and forced the Twi'lek to reveal herself. Grudgingly acknowledging Skywalker's abilities, the Twi'lek emerged and set about informing Thul and the Unu nest that the Jedi were sabotaging the Killiks and wanted the species eradicated. With the mental manipulation of the Gorog hive influencing him, Thul paid no attention to Skywalker's arguments to the contrary.[6]

Rar then begun to sow more doubt in Skywalker's mind about his wife's loyalty, hinting that the former Emperor's hand was concealing something important from the Jedi Master. She gave C-3PO another code sequence, despite Solo's protestations, before implying that perhaps Mara Jade Skywalker had been involved in the death of Padmé Amidala. At this, Solo drew his blaster, but Rar ignored the ex-smuggler, and left the scene. Seconds after her departure, Gorog exerted its influence and wiped the memory of Rar's presence from the minds of Thul and the Killiks present. Skywalker and Solo were subsequently imprisoned. The code sequence Rar had given C-3PO was a holorecording from the Jedi Temple during Operation: Knightfall,[6] when Anakin Skywalker, newly anointed as Darth Vader, had led the 501st Legion into the Jedi headquarters and massacred those Jedi present, including younglings.[22]

Following her second meeting with Skywalker, Alema Rar returned to the Tusken's Eye, where the fifteen nest ships had finished construction and were ready to depart. There was little time to delay, and Rar prepared herself for an attack on the Galactic Alliance blockade. The fifteen nest ships made the hyperspace jump to the Murgo Choke, where the Fifth Fleet was waiting. Rar boarded the Gorog nest ship, within which was docked a Lancer-class frigate, along with Raynar Thul and a number of Gorog and Unu guards—Lomi Plo's mental hold over Thul and the Killiks was strong enough that she had persuaded them to fight directly alongside the Gorog without compunction. At the same time as the nest ships engaged the Fifth Fleet, the Gorog assassin bugs hidden inside the models throughout the fleet were unleashed.[6]

With its command crew largely incapacitated, the Admiral Ackbar, Admiral Bwua'tu's flagship, was soon overwhelmed by the nest ships. The Mon Mothma—the second Star Destroyer—and its escorts retreated. Rar boarded the Lancer-class frigate with Thul, and they set off to capture the Admiral Ackbar. As the Star Destroyer fired upon the frigate, Thul used his powers to deflect the turbolaser strikes. The assassin bugs remaining inside the capital ship set about disabling the access terminals, preventing Bwua'tu from initiating the vessel's self-destruct mechanism. Rar and the Killiks with her boarded the Star Destroyer and battled the remaining crew.[6]

The Twi'lek led a small team of Gorog warriors but was soon discovered by Leia Organa Solo, who was on board the Star Destroyer defending Admiral Bwua'tu. The two women engaged in a lightsaber duel in the corridors. Rar was initially unprepared—Organa Solo had spent the past year training as a Jedi under Saba Sebatyne and soon had the Twi'lek on the ground. During the duel, Rar was able to prevent Bwua'tu and his crew from reaching an undamaged access terminal, but suffered heavily at the hands of Organa Solo in the process as she lost her left lek to the Human woman's lightsaber blade. The Twi'lek was able to best Organa Solo and incapacitate her with a seemingly fatal kick to the throat; as Rar neared the downed Jedi to finish her off, Master Sebatyne and the two Noghri bodyguards launched an attack, forcing the Twi'lek to retreat.[6]

The Jedi and Bwua'tu and his remaining crew escaped the Admiral Ackbar, leaving it in the hands of the Killiks. The Star Destroyer and four of the nest ships broke the blockade and left the Utegetu Nebula for Chiss space, with Rar on board. Luke Skywalker and Han Solo, however, had succeeded in disabling the Gorog nest ship's hyperdrive, and thus Lomi Plo's flagship, along with ten other nest ships, were marooned in the Murgo Choke in a standoff with the remnants of the still-powerful Fifth Fleet, which opened fire upon them. Meanwhile, an attack on Supply Depot Thrago encouraged the Chiss to launch a pre-emptive strike against the Killiks,[6] prompting the conflict known as the Swarm War.[24]

The Chiss Ascendancy launched an all-out war against the Killiks, attacking the Iesei nest on the planet Snevu with a parasite bomb which the Killiks failed to secure for study. Lomi Plo, who had survived the Battle of the Murgo Choke, advanced her plans for galactic domination, launching a series of coups on Galactic Alliance worlds where insectoid races resided. The coup attempts, however, were also designed to draw the attention of the Jedi Order away from the Colony and the Swarm War. Informed of the impending coups by Han and Leia Organa Solo, the Jedi foiled coup attempts on Nickel One, the Verpine capital, and upon other worlds. On Thyferra, however, Plo's Killiks and Joiner allies were able to conquer the world and secure the Galactic Alliance bacta supply.[24]

As the fighting grew fiercer, Alema Rar moved to Tenupe, a jungle planet on the frontlines of the war, where a trap was being prepared for Captain Jagged Fel's fleet. Raynar Thul and an army of Killiks secreted themselves on the Shattered Moon of Tenupe, waiting for the Chiss fleet to draw near. Flying in a purloined StealthX, the Twi'lek Night Herald prepared to enact Lomi Plo's orders and defend the Killiks against further aggression, which would take the form of more parasite bombs. As it became apparent that the Chiss were about to deliver the payload with defoliator vehicles, Raynar Thul brought the Moon Swarm fleet into play, and Rar flew her StealthX into Tenupe's atmosphere. Zekk and Jaina Solo, still under the influence of the hive mind, were sent against the defoliators as diversions, while Rar waited to strike once the Chiss believed the danger had passed. The two Jedi suffered serious damage while attacking the defoliators, but Rar did not intervene.[24]

Solo and Zekk succeeded in drawing away the clawcraft escorts, and the Twi'lek launched her attack. She destroyed the first defoliator with a pair of proton torpedoes against which the vessel had no chance to deploy countermeasures. By the time she fired another set of torpedoes against the second defoliator, the clawcraft had returned to protect it. Rar's missiles all but destroyed the craft, but the intervention of one clawcraft pilot prevented the entire vessel from being destroyed. One wing, with two parasite bombs attached, was blasted free and fell towards the surface of the jungle planet. Chiss forces; the Millennium Falcon, with Leia Organa Solo, her husband, and Jedi Master Sebatyne aboard; and the Twi'lek in her StealthX all raced down to the surface of the planet—the Chiss with the intention of detonating the bomb, and Rar and the Solos with the objective of destroying them, to prevent the wholesale extinction of the Killik species.[24]

Rar streaked to the surface of the planet, aware that she was being pursued by Organa Solo and her allies. Landing swiftly, Rar hid her StealthX in a mogo tree and covered the starfighter in foliage. She then began to search for the bomb but sensed the approach of Solo and her Jedi Master, Saba Sebatyne. Rar hid behind a curtain of vines and concealed her presence in the Force. Despite this attempt, she was alerted to the fact that she had been discovered as blaster bolts were pumped into the vines, forcing her to ignite her lightsaber and deflect Organa Solo's fire. The Twi'lek emerged from her hiding place, and squared off with her opponent for their third duel. In order to avoid delay in destroying the bombs before they were found by the Chiss, Rar attempted to use a mind trick on Organa Solo, suggesting that they work together as they both had the same objective. In return, the Twi'lek's opponent attempted the same tactic on her, and similarly almost succeeded. With Force powers alone having failed to resolve the situation, the two joined battle on the treetop branches.[24]

Initially successful in her first assault and able to meet Organa Solo's attacks with her own, Rar was nevertheless too slow to retreat from one lunge, and lost half of her foot to the Human woman's blade. Attempts to encourage Organa Solo to help her search for the parasite bombs remained unsuccessful, however, and when Rar noticed a spidersloth—a massive creature indigenous to Tenupe—several meters nearby Organa Solo, the Twi'lek decided to seize the opportunity and eliminate her opponent. Engaging her enemy once more, Rar held her in place long enough for the spidersloth to land on the branch behind the older woman. Just as the spirdersloth was about to strike, Organa Solo Force-jumped over Rar and kicked her into the spidersloth's open maw. Before Rar could react, the massive creature took her right arm into its mouth and bit down,[24] fracturing the limb.[4] It then fed in the top half of the struggling Twi'lek's body into its mouth.[24]

Organa Solo then cut the tree branch and the spidersloth's tail—with Alema Rar still inside its mouth, the creature plummeted to the river below.[24] Despite the fact that the spidersloth had bitten Rar nearly in half, fracturing six ribs in the process, the desperate former Jedi managed to slit the creature's throat from the inside with her lightsaber and struggle out of the river.[4] In space, the Battle of Tenupe was concluded—Luke Skywalker defeated and killed Lomi Plo, Raynar Thul was incarcerated, the Gorog nest was destroyed, and Killik expansionism was constrained. Although the parasite bombs were not unleashed, and the Killiks survived the speciecide attempt, the battle marked the end of Rar's time among the insectoids. Deprived of Force-sensitive leadership, the Killiks regressed to their old ways.[24]

She took our lekku, and so we can't communicate fully with others. She caused the destruction of our nest, too. And she took what attracted others to us, our beauty. We're lonely, and we can never touch the world properly again.

—Alema Rar, explaining her desire for vengeance to Lumiya, Sacrifice

Wounded and barely alive, Rar sought safety in a cave. With a fractured arm and six fractured ribs, as well as deep wounds in her abdomen and back, the Twi'lek was in a critical condition. To aid her in her recovery, she used the Force to summon Killiks to her which had survived the battle. A group of the insects arrived and cared for her over the course of the year. As each one completed their natural life spans and died, Rar recorded their deaths on a Twi'lek memory cord. By 37 ABY, the Twi'lek's injuries had healed. Although her body was lopsided and covered in thick scars, she was capable of walking. The healing of her injuries did not stop Rar from obsessing about those who had caused them. The Twi'lek descended into insanity, becoming fixated on avenging herself upon Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa Solo, and developed a unique philosophy known as the Balance. She came to believe that every action in the galaxy should have a counter-action; thus, she had to cause as much pain to Leia Organa Solo and her brother as they had to her. Rar did not believe that she was the agent or creator of the Balance, but that she could be guided by this intangible force in her actions. The Twi'lek came to the conclusion that she was a still a Jedi and that Jedi should serve the Balance.[4]

Rar recorded her injuries—her mangled shoulder, severed lek, missing instep and twisted torso—over and over again on the memory cord while she dwelt upon how best to repay her enemies in kind. Organa Solo, she mused, could suffer the loss of her eyes and nose in return for the lek, but the Twi'lek felt that losses greater than the physical should befall those whom she believed had wronged her. She decided to eliminate members of the Solo and Skywalker family to cause pain to her opponents—Rar planned for Organa Solo to witness the death of her spouse and her son, and to kill Mara Jade Skywalker in front of her husband. Rar recorded a lengthy list of other possible retaliations on the memory cord.[4] The majority of her rage was directed toward Leia Organa Solo—from the Twi'lek's point of view, her nemesis had rendered her ugly, mutilated her until she was incapable of dancing, deprived her of communication or emotional involvement with other members of her species by severing her lek, and destroyed the Gorog nest, taking away from her the safety and security she had found with Lomi Plo and the hive.[11] For her first target upon her return, Rar planned to eliminate Jacen Solo, her former friend and the surviving son of Han and Leia Organa Solo.[4]

Besides obsessing over how to gain revenge on her enemies, Rar also developed several other traits. She continued to refer to herself in the first person plural pronoun, which she believed honored the Gorog nest. As the last surviving member of the hive, the Twi'lek felt that referring to herself in the singular would prove that the nest was truly destroyed.[4] She also began to talk aloud to herself.[10] While on the planet, Rar constructed a blowgun and obtained from the wild Tenupian jungle some potent toxins, including a deadly poison[4] and a flesh-eating bacteria. She catalogued the different substances she collected in vials, which she kept about her person.[10] Near the end of her first year marooned in the Tenupian jungle, Rar caught a fever and entered a hallucenogenic state, dreaming that she was exploring the Massassitemples on Yavin 4 with her long dead sister, Numa. When the Twi'lek awoke, she was stranded high atop a mountain on the planet.[4]

Eventually, a means by which the Twi'lek could escape Tenupe became apparent. Unbeknownst to Rar, Jagged Fel was also marooned on Tenupe, and his father, Soontir Fel, had dispatched a commercial search party to retrieve his son. Somehow, Rar came across the search team and killed all of them. The Twi'lek then appropriated their starship, and escaped the jungle planet sometime between 37 ABY and 38 ABY. By 40 ABY, the Twi'lek was ready to begin her hunt for Jacen Solo.[4] Alema Rar's reemergence was to conincide with dramatic developments on the galactic scene. After four years of peace following the conclusion of the Swarm War, conflict was brewing once again.[25]

Chafing under the administration of the Galactic Alliance, the proud world of Corellia, which had survived the Yuuzhan Vong War unscathed, presented itself as an opponent to Chief of State Cal Omas' government. Corellia's stand drew much sympathy, and before long the Galactic Alliance launched a pre-emptive military operation against the planet, and its environs, as a warning.[25] Matters escalated rapidly, and within a few weeks a full-scale civil war was in the making. Jacen Solo, Rar's target, became head of the Galactic Alliance Guard, a secret police organization operating on Coruscant to prevent hostile actions being undertaken by enemies of the Galactic Alliance. His sister Jaina Solo, who had recovered from her Killik Joining, flew in Rogue Squadron, along with Zekk.[26]

It was to Coruscant that Rar came, just under three months into the year. The Twi'lek, eager to begin her quest for the Balance, located Jacen Solo and began to stalk him. Rar followed her old companion from his apartment down through Coruscant's dangerous undercity, which was replete with Yuuzhan Vong creatures, Ferals—the inhabitants of the region—and residual Yuuzhan Vong growths and plant life. Although Rar was presented with the opportunity to fire her blowgun at Solo and kill the Jedi as he traveled, the Twi'lek chose not to do so, preferring instead to seek to kill Solo face-to-face, and watch him as he realized that he was going to die. Although Rar was twice distracted by the inhabitants of the undercity, and each time dealt out the particular justice she found in the Balance, she managed to keep Solo in her sights for a time. Before long, however, her quarry had disappeared, and Rar found herself outside a cavern-like entrance. Rar was prevented from entering by a Nikto guard but held off forcing entry when she detected the presence of a dark side Force-wielder some way behind her. The presence vanished from her perceptions as soon as she had noticed it, but it led the Twi'lek to believe that someone else was pursuing Solo. This knowledge encouraged her to enter swiftly, and she killed the Nikto guard after a short interrogation as to Solo's whereabouts. To deal with the two Quarren guards who came out to confront her, Rar used a powerful mind trick and memory rub, ordering them to prevent the Force-wielder she had sensed following Solo from entering. The Twi'lek then made her way through the rooms. What at first she took to be a pleasure den she soon realized to be something more mysterious, but there was little time to ponder on the complex's function. Rar listened as the Force-wielder killed the two Quarren guards and came inside; determined to discover the identity of Solo's other pursuer, she hid. When Lumiya, Dark Lady of the Sith and a Rebellion era antagonist of Luke Skywalker, emerged in the corridor, Rar was shocked.[4]

The Twi'lek assumed that Lumiya, an enemy of the Jedi, had targeted Solo and was going to steal Rar's kill. To prevent this unwelcome occurrence, Rar decided to eliminate the Sith herself. When Rar discovered Lumiya had vanished, she raced through the corridors and rooms to find Solo, killing any who lied to her and evading the guards searching for her. Eventually, she emerged on a balcony which looked out over a slime pool, shrouded in fog. Through the mist, Rar heard Jacen Solo addressing what turned out to be the World Brain, a Yuuzhan Vong creature still in place on Coruscant which had been installed as the organic controller of the planet. Not wishing to waste time, Rar fired off one of her blowgun's darts at Solo. To her shock, an unknown female warned Solo of the incoming missile, before using the Force to whisk Solo from harm's way. Rar attempted to flee from the botched assassination, but was blasted by Force lightning and incapacitated. For the moment, Rar was hidden in the chamber's thick fog. Both Solo and Lumiya approached, as the World Brain—the accidental recipient of Rar's poison dart—began to go into convulsions and die. To her shock, once again, Rar soon realized that not only had Lumiya been the woman helping Solo, but that he was obeying her commands. As the Dark Lady of the Sith tried to calm Solo, telling him to focus not on the assassin but on the dying World Brain, Rar remained hidden, ready to fight to the death if need be. With a ominous warning, Solo left with Lumiya to tend to the World Brain, leaving Rar to come to terms with the revelation of Solo's apprenticeship to a Sith.[4]

Do I know you?""Not yet. But we hope you will let us serve you. What you are doing with Jacen is so delicious—and so right for the Balance.

—Lumiya and Alema Rar, Tempest (novel)

Over the next few days, Rar spied on Solo and Lumiya, enamored with the idea that Leia Organa Solo was in the process of losing her only surviving son to the Order of the Sith Lords, a reality which the Twi'lek believed could only have been orchestrated by the Balance she had lived by since Tenupe. Three days after the incident with the World Brain, Rar tracked Solo to Fellowship Plaza, where her quarry was meeting with Ben Skywalker, his Jedi apprentice. The Twi'lek observed the meeting in secret, as did two others—Lumiya, and a powerful Jedi who had followed Ben Skywalker to the meeting and concealed his or herself in the Force. Rar listened to Solo and Skywalker's conversation, admiring the Balance even more as she understood that Solo was corrupting his nephew with dark side teachings, thus bringing pain to Luke Skywalker, and remained to eavesdrop on Lumiya once Ben had left. As the Dark Lady and her apprentice began to confer, Rar realized the identity of the other Force-user present—Tresina Lobi, the Chev Jedi Master with whom Rar had served during the Yuuzhan Vong War. Determined that Lobi should not inform the Jedi Order of the alliance between Solo and Lumiya, as Rar felt such a development would ruin the Balance by alerting Organa Solo to her son's corruption too soon, the Twi'lek leapt at Lobi with her lightsaber. Immediately, Lobi was able to repel Rar's surprise attack, injure the Twi'lek, and retreat. The former Night Herald used the distance to remove the Jedi Master's headset with the Force, preventing Lobi from recording the duel. The Chev rushed at Rar and forced her back, before attempting to flee with her knowledge of Lumiya and Solo's partnership. Rar quickly recruited Lumiya to her cause and together they pursued Lobi. The fierce fight which followed saw Rar and Lumiya initially overpowered; Lumiya lost an arm and Rar was dragged into the path of the Sith Lady's signature lightwhip by Lobi's command of the Force. Lobi continued to prevail until she hesitated; Rar seized the opportunity and forced the Chev back, whereupon Lumiya severed the Jedi Master's legs. With what she saw as an act of mercy, Rar then performed sai cha on the helpless Chev.[4]

When Rar had explained why she wanted to ally with Lumiya, the Sith Lady accepted the Twi'lek's aid. Over the next few days, Rar helped Lumiya assassinate several members of the True Victory Party, the same faction she had observed as part of her Jedi duties after the Yuuzhan Vong War. Reh'mwa and the True Victory Party had become opponents of Jacen Solo, and thus the aspiring Sith had asked Lumiya to kill off its leading members. After having performed a number of assassinations, Rar traveled with her new ally to the Anakin Solo, an Imperial I-class Star Destroyer bestowed upon Solo by Cha Niathal, the Supreme Commander of the Galactic Alliance forces. The Anakin Solo traveled from Coruscant to the Hapes Cluster, in order to protect Queen Mother Tenel Ka Djo from a possible coup d'etat. Even while working alongside Lumiya, however, the Twi'lek was not made privy to the extent of the Sith Lady's plans, and similarly her explanations of the Balance fell on disinterested ears. It was only when the two sneaked into the missile hold of the Anakin Solo that Rar began to understand the nature of Lumiya's mission. The Sith Lady set to work on removing the proton detonator from one of the Star Destroyer's baradium missiles and had Rar help her as she undertook the dangerous work. The Sith Lady's secrecy concerning the purpose of the proton detonator frustrated Rar, and she put the two at risk of death when Lumiya continued to ignore her questions. When her ally did respond, explaining that Solo was sending her on to Roqoo Depot, a nearby station, to fight Luke and Mara Jade Skywalker, Rar was shocked that Lumiya recognized the suicidal nature of the mission. Either the Sith Lady was to die fighting the Skywalkers, thus removing her as now redundant master to Solo, or she would kill Luke Skywalker, allowing Solo to take over the Jedi order. Lumiya was resigned to the fact that either way she was serving Solo's Sith destiny and acted to ensure Skywalker's death whether she suceeded in killing him or not—she strapped the proton detonator to her chest as a combat failsafe, linked to her heart.[4]

Alema Rar was still unable to comprehend Lumiya's plan fully, assuming that Lumiya wanted to see Skywalker die as revenge for her scarring at his hands during the Galactic Civil War. Furthermore, Rar wished for Luke Skywalker to live a little longer and watch his nephew fall further to the dark side. The two argued again, before Lumiya explained that the was a plan to ensure the Sith would rule the galaxy even without her, hinting that there were more Sith waiting to act. Rar was in disbelief, due to her Jedi training and her knowledge of the Rule of Two, which stated there could only be two Sith at any given time. Lumiya was not forthcoming, merely giving further hints, and began preparing a second proton detonator for Rar—the Twi'lek was going to go to Roqoo Depot wearing the same combat failsafe.[4]

Luke and Mara Jade Skywalker, two of Alema Rar's targets in her quest for the Balance.

From the Anakin Solo Rar and Lumiya traveled to Roqoo Depot, where they lay in wait for the Skywalkers. Once Luke Skywalker and his wife had remained in the station's cantina for some time, waiting for their son, Rar and Lumiya sprung their trap. Her presence in the Force masked, and her identity concealed by a bulky cloak, Rar hurled a grenade down a corridor towards Skywalker, which destroyed the intersection and sealed the passage off, herding the Skywalkers further inside the cantina. There, Lumiya revealed herself and engaged Luke Skywalker in a pitched lightsaber duel. Skywalker was immediately hindered by the presence of so many other beings in the cantina, and was forced to adapt his fighting style to prevent collateral damage. Rar lay in wait at one of the cantina's other entrances, awaiting a chance to kill Skywalker with her blowgun. Lumiya continually held Skywalker in position, until Rar could shoot a dart at the Jedi Master, but the Twi'lek held off—she wanted Luke Skywalker to see his wife die first, before his own demise, so that he would end his life in grief and agony. Alema Rar's hesitation lasted too long, and Lumiya was beaten back across the room, both combatants out of the Twi'lek's sight. Just as Lumiya's opportunity for victory faded, however, Rar's arose. Mara Jade Skywalker, unaware of her presence, came into her line of sight, and Rar prepared to fire a dart at the woman. Before her attack, Rar reached out to Luke Skywalker in the Force and shared with him the grief and misery and anguish she had suffered since her fall. The mental outpouring alerted Skywalker to the threat posed by Rar but also distracted him, allowing Lumiya to sever his hand while he sent a warning to his wife. As such, Jade Skywalker dodged the poison dart and came after the being who had fired it.[4]

Rar used the Force to hide her presence in the corner of the hatchway. As Jade Skywalker rushed in to find her attacker, an Arcona came between Rar and the Jedi Master just as she struck. With her lightsaber blade stuck fast in the Arcona's chest, the Twi'lek was vulnerable to a strike from Jade Skywalker's shoto, the short lightsaber she had been using to combat Lumiya's lightwhip. Her intact lek was grazed by the blade, causing Rar to shriek and turn off her blade. Jade Skywalker identified her with some surprise and attacked just as Rar re-ignited her lightsaber and defended herself. The two squared off in the corridor and Jade Skywalker, eager to return to aid her husband, gave the Twi'lek the chance to surrender. Rar mocked the Human's concession, before ducking inside Jade Skywalker's next attack and piercing the Jedi Master's throat with the talons of her hand. As she prepared to loose Force lightning directly into her opponent's gullet, Jade Skywalker let herself fall backward and scissored Rar's legs out from underneath her, bringing her to the floor and knocking her unconscious. The Jedi Master disarmed the proton detonator attached to Rar's chest, taking the Twi'lek's lightsaber and blowgun and leaving her bound on the floor. When Rar awoke, she immediately fled, securing a Galactic Alliance message dinghy to make her escape. Before she left, Rar ruptured a containment line on the Jade Shadow in order to delay the Skywalkers while she traveled to speak with Jacen Solo. The cantina exploded as Lumiya's fail-safe detonated, and Rar assumed that her ally was dead.[4]

The Twi'lek took the message dinghy to the Hapes system, where the Anakin Solo was engaged in a battle to protect Queen Mother Tenel Ka Djo from a hostile faction of her nobility and a trio of Corellian Dreadnaughts. Landing in one of the Star Destroyer's hangars, Rar requested an immediate audience with Jacen Solo, and traveled up to the Command Salon to meet him. Her identity concealed by the pilot's jumpsuit and helmet she wore, Rar was ordered by Solo to reveal herself. She suspected that the fallen Jedi would try and kill her immediately, but Rar's knowledge of Lumiya's fate and of Allana's parentage gave her some security. Even so, Solo grabbed the Twi'lek in the Force and prepared to kill her; only Rar's glee at her former companion's darkness halted the aspiring Sith. Once Rar made it clear that her death aboard the Star Destroyer would have unwelcome consequences for Solo, his lover Tenel Ka Djo, and Allana, her survival was secured—Solo could not risk knowledge of Allana's parentage becoming public. The Dark Jedi then answered Solo's questions about what had occurred at Roqoo Depot and told of her alliance with Lumiya since the Duel in Fellowship Plaza. Solo was initially skeptical, especially as Rar talked of Lumiya's pride in him for his betrayal and of her partnership with the Sith Lady. The Twi'lek eventually convinced Solo and explained that she had come here and disabled the Jade Shadow in order to forewarn him of, and prepare him for, the Skywalkers, who knew that Solo had set up the confrontation with Lumiya. Alema Rar saw Solo's corruption in the ways of the Sith as essential for the Balance; unlike Lumiya's objective to install the Sith as rulers of the galaxy, however, Rar's goal was to witness Leia Organa Solo's pain.[4]

Once Rar had delivered her warning, she saw another way to take revenge on the Solos and Skywalkers. On Jacen Solo's tactical display screen, the Millennium Falcon was shown to be on the point of collecting several extravehicular beings from vacuum. Both Solo and Rar knew that among those beings were Ben Skywalker, Jaina Solo, and Zekk, recently evacuated from a doomed vessel. All the Twi'lek had to do was imply that Han and Leia Organa Solo were attempting to take Ben Skywalker hostage, as well as refer to their suspect involvement in an assassination attempt on Queen Mother Tenel Ka, and she had managed to plant seeds of doubt in the Sith's mind. With a final, off-hand comment about Solo having to be able to sacrifice anything to secure peace for the galaxy, Rar departed, disguised and accompanied by a Galactic Alliance escort. A few moments later, Solo ordered the Anakin Solo to fire upon his parents, who were nevertheless able to escape the battle.[4] Rather than take the message dinghy back with her, however, Rar elected to remain aboard the Star Destroyer. The Battle of Hapes was concluded, and Solo and his Star Destroyer returned to policing the Corellian system, where a Galactic Alliance blockade had been set up.[27]

While conducting operations in and around the Corellian system, the Anakin Solo apprehended a number of smuggler vessels, one of which was the Breathe My Jets, owned by a Human woman from Bespin named Uran Lavint. Lavint had cut a deal with Solo to betray her fellow smugglers in return for credits but was duped by the GAG colonel into surrendering her vessel. Instead, Lavint was granted an outdated YV-666 light freighter, the Duracrud. Angered by Lavint's rebukes, Solo ordered two of his agents to sabotage the Duracrud's hyperdrive, ensuring that it would suffer a catastrophic failure once Lavint attempted a hyperspace jump. Rar, hidden in the Star Destroyer's Delta Hangar, elected to stowaway aboard the Duracrud once she observed the agents sabotaging the vessel. Having witnessed the actions of the agents, she brought replacement parts on board and was able, once Lavint had made a jump to an uncharted area of space, to reveal herself to the smuggler and offer her help. Lavint was incredulous, but Rar made it clear that in return for her help in fixing the hyperdrive, she would require the smuggler's services in locating her long time adversaries, Han and Leia Solo. The two women struck a deal, and together they repaired the sabotaged hyperdrive. For their destination, Lavint set her sights upon the Errant Venture, Booster Terrik's starship which had served alongside Rar during the Yuuzhan Vong War. Rar was uncertain about the Bespinite smuggler's choice, but acquiesced. Lavint flew the Duracrud back to the Corellian system, where Terrik had stationed the Errant Venture in order to capitalize on the business from the soldiers aboard the Galactic Alliance Blockade.[27]

Leia Organa Solo, Alema Rar's primary target, and her husband Han Solo, both of whom Rar hunted during the Second Galactic Civil War.

At Lavint's request, Rar entered one of the freighter's smuggling compartments and awaited her partner's contact before leaving the berthed vessel to travel to the smuggler's cabin. It was not long before Rar detected the vague presence of a Jedi on board the Star Destroyer and suspected that it was Leia Organa Solo. Over the next few days, Rar took to sneaking around the Star Destroyer's hangars searching for the Millennium Falcon, or moving stealthily through its day cabins, casinos and shopping areas, all the while erasing evidence of her passage by wiping her image from holocam recordings. Meanwhile, Uran Lavint gambled, returning in the evenings to the cabin, whereupon Rar would deliver threats and reports of her search. Occasionally, when the two women were in the same casino, Rar would use her abilities in the Force to aid the Bespinite smuggler's gambling success, keeping tabs on her partner. The Twi'lek's lack of success soon began to grate, and it was only an brief conversation with Lavint that reaffirmed the possibility of her righting of the Balance—the smuggler lectured Rar on the lofty connections possessed by the Solos, reminding the Twi'lek that Han and Leia Solo would be in the private areas of the vessel with Terrik, rather than frequenting casions and shopping areas. As such locations had proven dud areas in terms of her quest for the Solos, Rar began venturing into the crew quarters and the administrative regions of the ship, such as the bridge and even the cabins of Captain Terrik and his daughter Mirax, the wife of Jedi Master Corran Horn. And yet, despite these frequent investigations, Rar's search still proved fruitless, and after another unsuccessful day she decided to aid her partner at gambling in the Maw Casino. There, she noticed Jacen Solo in a discussion with two humans, who turned out to be Luke and Mara Jade Skywalker. Eager to eliminate Jade Skywalker, Rar was preparing her blowgun when a disturbance in the Force provoked Jacen Solo and the Skywalkers to depart the casino in a rush, followed shortly thereafter by most of the military personnel; Bothan and Commenorian fleets had attacked the Galactic Alliance blockade in an attempt to liberate the Corellian system.[27]

In the resulting chaos, Rar managed to fire a dart at Jade Skywalker, only to have her projectile eliminate an Ortolan who accidentally interposed himself between it and its intended target. Just as she was giving up in frustration, she bumped into Lando Calrissian, to whom she had made overtures during the Borleias campaign over a decade earlier. Realizing that Calrissian's presence indicated that of the Solos, she pursued the Serroco native into a turbolift. Surprised, Calrissian drew his blaster, only to have it telekinetically whisked from his hand by Rar. The Twi'lek interrogated Calrissian calmly, ignoring his claims that the Solos were not aboard the Errant Venture and assuring him that she would not take his life. When Calrissian raised his cane at her, she suspected a concealed blaster and used the Force to take it off him as well. At a voiced command, the cane electrocuted Rar, who collapsed to the floor of the lift semi-conscious. Calrissian fled the scene, but as he escaped, Rar exerted her will in the Force and erased the chance meeting from the gambler's memory, retaining the secrecy of her presence aboard the Star Destroyer. The combined Bothan, Corellian and Commenorian forces broke the Galactic Alliance blockade and henceforth declared themselves to be the Confederation. Fondor, Adumar and Bespin likewise sided with the Confederation, setting the stage for the conflict which would evolve into the Second Galactic Civil War.[27]

We are here to kill Mara Jade Skywalker, who is here, and Han Solo, who is coming.

—Alema Rar explains herself to Lumiya, Exile (novel)

The Errant Venture had fled the engagement over the Five Worlds and had set up shop in the Coruscant system, with Rar and Lavint still onboard. Unbeknownst to Rar, however, a holocam had recorded her in the corridors outside the Maw Casino and transferred this information to the New Jedi Temple on Coruscant several days after the events in the Corellian system. There, the Alema Rar Task Force, consisting of Zekk, Jaina Solo, and Jagged Fel, received the data and departed the surface of the galactic capital for the nearby Errant Venture. They were shortly thereafter joined by the Solos, who returned to the Star Destroyer from Gyndine. Rar detected Leia Organa Solo's presence clearly and grew excited at the prospect of righting the Balance. Meeting with Lavint briefly in the cabin, Rar assured her partner that their deal was concluded, aware that Lavint was still a potential target for elimination if her plans went awry. The ex-Jedi made her way to a data kiosk to download information on recent arrivals to the Errant Venture. Soon, she detected another presence, that of Zekk, who was moving through the nearby lobby. Rar singled him out as a target of opportunity, readying her blowgun, only to discover Jedi Master Corran Horn standing behind her. Horn demanded Rar's surrender, and merely plucked her dart from the air when she fired upon him. The two ignited their lightsabers, and the denizens of the lobby applauded, expecting a duel. As Zekk closed in, Rar hurled her lightsaber at a chandelier, forcing Zekk and Horn to save numerous patrons from being crushed. The Twi'lek made her escape, only to be confronted by Organa Solo in a long corridor, with another unknown Jedi closing in behind. Panicked, and abandoning her quest to kill Han Solo in front of his wife, Rar fired her blowgun at Organa Solo, only to have the dart Force pushed back into her mouth. The trapped Twi'lek fled, avoiding the other Jedi, revealed to be Jaina Solo, and running to a bank of inactive turbolifts, where she used her lightsaber to cut through the floor and drop down the lift shaft. Emerging in a cargo bay, Rar briefly faced off with Jagged Fel. She shot a dart at her tracker, but the human's armor deflected the projectile. Fel responded with a shot from his blaster with broke Rar's left clavicle; in great pain, the Twi'lek hurled her former squadron-mate into a stack of cargo crates and rushed into the hangar bay. Desperately searching for a ship, Rar boarded the Duracrud, to which she knew the codes. Galactic Alliance regulations enabled the vessel's departure despite Terrik's best efforts, as it was technically assigned to the military. In the YV-666, Rar fled the scene of her latest conflict.[27]

Days later, she communicated with Lavint for the last time, demanding the location of the Solos. The smuggler informed her that a meeting of Confederation leaders was taking place in the Gilatter system, at a resort satellite over the gas giant Gilatter VIII. Rar journeyed to the resort satellite, leaving the Duracrud in orbit above the station with a command code keyed into it, which at Rar's activation would trigger the YV-666's self-destructive dive into the satellite. Having set up this contingency, the mutilated Twi'lek infiltrated the resort satellite with ease, utilizing her Killik abilities to hide her presence. Soon after her arrival, a disguised Jacen Solo entered the resort's main chamber, hoping to eliminate the Confederation leaders. In fact, Gilatter VIII was a trap, and security forces converged upon Solo. Disappointed, Rar was on the point of leaving when she detected Organa Solo once again. As the conflict developed, with a space battle unfolding throughout the system, Rar was similarly delighted to witness the arrival of Luke and Mara Jade Skywalker. With all of her targets finally in one place, Rar triggered the Duracrud's final descent, before preparing to move out of her hiding place to attack her adversaries. To her shock, Lumiya, who had survived Roqoo Depot, appeared alongside her, demanding to know what she was doing on the satellite. Despite their conflicting goals—Lumiya wished to help her apprentice, and Rar wanted Jacen Solo to remain imperiled to ensure his relatives arrived to effect his rescue—the two women joined forces again and dove into the fray, in agreement that their actions would ensure the presence of the Solos and Skywalkers at the duel. As expected, all four of Rar's targets arrived. Lumiya engaged Luke Skywalker, while Rar emerged to confront Han and Leia Solo. Deflecting a blaster shot from Han Solo, the Twi'lek clashed blades with Organa Solo for the first time since their climactic duel at the Battle of Tenupe. Rar did not intend to defeat her opponent with her lightsaber, however, and she fought a holding action against Organa Solo as the Duracrud made its approach. Forced to deflect continued blaster shots from Han Solo, Rar held Organa Solo at bay. At the last moment, the Solos noticed the impending arrival of the freighter. Rar donned an emergency decompression helmet and fled, hoping that the Duracrud would wipe out all of her enemies. The ploy failed and all of her opponents escaped intact.[27] Rar escaped the resort satellite herself aboard an old Conqueror-class assault ship.[11]

Lumiya, the Dark Lady of the Sith with whom Alema Rar sided to achieve her own goals.

Following the events over Gilatter VII, Rar began tracking the Anakin Solo, believing that by working with Jacen Solo against his parents, she was more likely to confront her targets. It was not long before the Twi'lek noticed Lumiya's departure from the Star Destroyer, aboard an exotic vessel of ancient design. Rar tailed Lumiya to the MZX32905 system and followed Lumiya to an asteroid habitat, where the Sith Lady allowed her to land. Once Rar had disembarked and answered Lumiya's greetings, the Twi'lek began examining the ancient vessel in which her ally had been flying. A Sith Meditation Sphere, it was a millennia-old Sith artifact capable of telepathic communion with its pilot and had its own Force-presence. Rar found it fascinating; Lumiya, however, was both unwilling to allow Rar ownership of the Sith vessel and hostile to the idea of Rar interfering in her plans for Jacen Solo. The Twi'lek, even in her single-mindedness, recognized Lumiya's threats when she heard them; she still, however, attempted to equate Lumiya's quest with hers—as one of revenge.[11]

The Sith Lady lost patience with Rar and warned the Twi'lek off on pain of death. Rar relented when she understood the extent of Lumiya's drive and resolve and agreed not only to hold off meeting with Solo for the time being but also to aid the Sith Lady in keeping track of her apprentice's movements. Rar's ally gave her a courier shuttle to effect these purposes and dispatched her to keep following the Anakin Solo. Before she left, and in response to one of Lumiya's earlier comments, Rar attempted to communicate the deeper root of her desire for revenge to her ally—that Leia Organa Solo had isolated her from other Twi'leks due to her lost lekku, from the destroyed Gorog hive, and from potential sexual partners. She then set off on her new mission.[11] The Sith Lady later asked her to keep watch over the movements of Mara Jade Skywalker, who had began hunting Lumiya herself.[10]

While Rar carried out Lumiya's orders, events moved rapidly over the next days. Before long, Jacen Solo ousted Cal Omas as Chief of State of the Galactic Alliance and ascended to the position alongside Cha Niathal. Ben Skywalker assassinated Five Worlds Head of State Dur Gejjen on Solo's orders, and Mara Jade Skywalker swore a vendetta against her nephew for his actions. In the Hapes Cluster, Solo, Lumiya, and Jade Skywalker, with Ben Skywalker close behind, entered into a brief engagement. Solo dueled his aunt on Kavan and killed her, while Ben Skywalker forced Lumiya down to the planet's surface. Both Solo and Lumiya escaped the scene, and the Sith Lady subsequently announced herself as Jade Skywalker's killer. Rar's ally waited for a vengeful Luke Skywalker at Terephon, a nearby world, and it was on Terephon that Skywalker killed Lumiya. When it came to light that it had not been Lumiya who killed Jade Skywalker the Jedi Order searched for another suspect.[11]

In the belief that she was the successor to Lumiya's Sith designs, Rar worked quickly to ensure that the Jedi believed her to be Jade Skywalker's killer. The Twi'lek felt and that it was now up to her to enable Solo to achieve his Sith rule of the galaxy. Already in Hapan space at the time of Jade Skywalker's death, she acquired the Sith Meditation Sphere, which proved willing at least to convey her to her destinations, even if the vessel's consciousness did not trust her. Rar traveled once again to Roqoo Depot. There, she engendered a confrontation with a freighter captain. When the man mocked Rar's disfigurements, she replicated all her deformities upon him and his crew, leaving enough evidence to allow the Jedi to pick up her trail. From Roqoo Depot Rar journeyed to Ossus, in order to accrue more information on the Sith Meditation Sphere.[10]

With Jaina Solo, Zekk, and Fel still tracking her movements, Rar knew that she had to act quickly at Ossus. She left the Meditation Sphere in a ravine and made her way to the Jedi Academy. Once there, Rar was surprised to discover that Jacen Solo had dispatched a complement of Galactic Alliance Guard soldiers to secure the academy in order to gain leverage over the Jedi Order. The Twi'lek felt this made her mission to help Solo all the more pertinent, as in her opinion he was already blundering. Distracting the guards in the Ossus library, Rar downloaded all data on Sith Meditation Spheres to her datapad. Much of the limited information was already known to her, but the fact that the vessel was a powerful tool for the art of battle meditation, with which one could turn the tides of engagements, was news to the Twi'lek. Rar set off back through the forests to the ravine and ordered the Meditation Sphere to take her back to Lumiya's asteroid hideout in the Kanz sector.[10]

The ancient vessel initially refused to allow Rar access to the home of its former master, but she wore down its resolve with specious arguments. Finally, Rar promised that by helping Solo, she would be adding strength to a Sith bid to dominate the galaxy. The ship relented and took her to the MZX32905 system. Throughout the course of the journey, and during the landing on The Home, the Meditation Sphere attempted to rattle the Twi'lek by rendering its bulkheads transparent and making a sudden, rapid descent towards Lumiya's former residence. Once inside the hangar, Rar had to deal quickly with a baradium bomb trap left by Lumiya, as well as a host of other snares which led the way to the late Sith's private sanctum. As she disarmed or evaded each trap, the Dark Jedi grew increasingly convinced that Lumiya had been guarding some kind of advanced Sith technology, such as a superweapon, with which Rar believed she could aid Solo.[10]

An extended search of Lumiya's home failed to turn up any Sith artifacts, and eventually Rar was left with only one last room, the door to which she blasted open with a concussion grenade. Inside was a food and spare parts storage pantry. The Twi'lek flew into a rage and began destroying the contents of the small room with her lightsaber but soon located a datachip hidden in one of Lumiya's cybernetic arms. Once she had unsuccessfully searched for more, Rar inserted the chip into a datapad and watched as a message of a hooded figure—the other Sith Lumiya had spoken of weeks previously—relayed a prerecorded message to the Sith Lady. The cloaked man gave instructions that a navigation string was attached to the datachip which could guide Lumiya to the hideaway of this new Sith order.

Heartened that the Sith themselves, not their artifacts, would aid Solo, Rar ordered the Meditation Sphere to follow the coordinates. On arrival at Korriban, the ancestral homeworld of the Sith species, Rar was disappointed. She had long known of the world, travel to which had been made extremely difficult following Luke Skywalker's attempt to have it erased from the navigation banks. A dilapidated spaceport and an equally run-down village consisted of the only population center on the planet. Rar decided to try her luck anyway and interrogated a motley ground crew for the location of the Sith. Skeptical that they were to be found in the Valley of the Dark Lords, or even on the world at all, Rar nevertheless set off on a swoop which she appropriated from one of the workers and set out across the wastes.[10]

When the Twi'lek reached the set of buildings which she had been told made up the Sith headquarters, she presented herself at the gate, with nothing but one of her poison darts to defend herself. A cloaked Togorian soon emerged and dragged Rar inside to a courtyard, promising her death for having found the Sith and demanding how she had come upon their hideout. The Twi'lek bought herself some time by referring to the datachip, but as the Togorian began to crush the air out of her lungs, she was forced to stab him in the leg with her dart. A woman spoke out and put an end to the fight, and Rar was surprised to find over thirty hooded figures watching from the courtyard balconies. Another unknown figure spoke to her from one of the balconies and appropriated the datachip with the Force when Rar presented it. In order to stop the Sith from killing her where she stood, Rar claimed to have been Lumiya's apprentice and, to gain their respect and prolong their attention, identified herself as the killer of Mara Jade Skywalker.[10]

With her audience now willing to listen, Rar set out her reasons for coming to Korriban—she sought help and guidance in her quest to aid Jacen Solo. To her shock, she was soon informed that the Sith before her were in no way responsible for Jacen Solo; the fallen Jedi was the project of Lumiya and Vergere alone, the former of whom who had been approached by the Sith in the first year of the Yuuzhan Vong War. Even more surprising for Rar was that the principal figure in the Sith delegation sent to meet Lumiya had been none other than Lomi Plo. The revelation that the former queen of the Gorog hive had been a Sith Master led to a string of further questions, which in turn led to Rar attempting to explain the Balance. The Twi'lek's unique view of the Force was not received well—Morto, the Togorian, was instructed to kill Rar.[10]

Alema Rar staved off her death by reminding the Sith that Skywalker's Jedi would doubtlessly track her to Korriban and that if it was her last resting place, her death at the hands of the Sith would similarly be discovered. Relenting, the Sith allowed Rar to stay the night. In fact, the Twi'lek remained on Korriban for three nights, while the Sith instructed her in the use of the Meditation Sphere and provided her with a gift for Jacen Solo. The gift in question was The Holocron ofDarth Vectivus, deemed as useless by the Sith and intended as an insult to Solo's status. Rar then traveled to Kashyyyk, where the Galactic Alliance Fifth Fleet, under Solo's command, was bombarding the planet in response to the fact that the Wookiees were sheltering the Jedi Order, now fugitives from Solo's government.[10]

The Bothan and Corellian fleets, along with a wing of Jedi, Hapan forces, and the Wookiee defense fleet, had surrounded Solo's fleet and were in the process of destroying it when Rar arrived. The Meditation Sphere's consciousness informed a skeptical Rar that it could influence one of the fleets attacking Solo into allowing him to escape. To Solo—now Darth Caedus, a Sith Lord—Rar projected a sense of hope and promises of victory and safety, as well as her customary sexual overtures. With the power of the Sith Meditation Sphere reinforcing her strength in the Force, Rar urged Caedus to advance toward the Bothan fleet. As the remnants of the Fifth Fleet made for the Bothans, Rar and the Sith Meditation Sphere projected a sense of uncertainty and suspicion to the Bothan commanders. The Bothan fleet broke formation and advanced on Caedus, who slipped past them and escaped into hyperspace.[10]

We are simply ageless and eternal now, as we have always deserved to be.

—Alema Rar, Fury

Alema Rar later returned to the Home with the Sith Meditation Sphere, whereupon she turned the asteroid habitat into her base of operations. Unbeknownst to the Twi'lek, the Holocron of Darth Vectivus, which she had never had the chance to pass on to Caedus, was a tracking device, and her location soon became known to the new Sith Order. In fact, Rar had targeted the new Sith Order for destruction, following her righting of the Balance with the deaths of the Solos and Skywalkers, who remained her primary objectives. The Twi'lek made her home in the late Lumiya's quarters and read the Sith Lady's extensive notes on an arcane Sith technique—the creation of Force Phantoms. The Sith art would allow Rar to transcend her mutilations and deformities for a time, as she transmuted her conciousness across the galaxy in order to hunt for her foes. The technique required a presence for the user of the phantom to anchor their projection upon or to take control of entirely. It was the discovery of such a power which led Rar to believe she had become a deific being.[3]

Rar's first attack upon her enemies, using the technique, was the sending of a doppelgänger of herself, in her younger, unblemished form, to Kashyyyk, where the Millennium Falcon was attempting to combat the forest fires caused by Darth Caedus' orbital bombardment. Rar's doppelgänger emerged in the cockpit of the YT-1300 light freighter and threatened Han Solo, surprising the Corellian when she used telekinesis to whisk the blaster from his hand. As Solo threw the freighter into a series of emergency maneuveurs, Rar's doppelgänger was largely unencumbered, as the Twi'lek's phantom was not subject to the same laws of physics. She then directed the phantom to attack the light freighter's hyperdrive but was forced to battle both the swiftly alternating gravity as well as Leia Organa Solo's lightsaber. Once the two had engaged in battle, however, Rar was unable to sustain the phantom for long enough or direct its movements with adequate control. Exhausted and vulnerable, the Twi'lek withdrew the illusion and slept for days in Lumiya's quarters.[3]

Several days later, Rar used the dark side power of the asteroid to augment her own and searched for the Solos throughout the galaxy. The Twi'lek discovered the presences of her foes aboard the Anakin Solo and used the technique to anchor her phantom's presence to that of a young girl also aboard the vessel—in fact Allana, the Hapan Chume'da. Rar set out after Han Solo and brought her phantom to the yacht Love Commander, which Solo, his wife, Jagged Fel, and Zekk had used to board the Anakin Solo. The Twi'lek Dark Jedi revealed herself to Fel and Zekk but was immediately engaged by Organa Solo. Rar's opponents soon proved themselves unwilling to harm the phantom, as they had realized following Rar's projection at Kashyyyk that all was not as it seemed. As Rar came to understand that her phantoms were no longer credible and that her attack was in vain, the frustrated and angry Dark Jedi withdrew the doppelgänger.[3]

Remember. Remember us as we used to be, before the universe turned against us. Young, beautiful, strong, brave, admirable, loved, loving…

—Alema Rar's last words, communicated through the Force to Jagged Fel, Fury

Jagged Fel, Alema Rar's former comrade, who tracked the Twi'lek down to the Home along with Zekk and Jaina Solo, and ended her life.

Now marked for capture or execution by both the Alema Rar Task Force and the new Sith Order, the latter of which wished to destroy the Home itself, Rar's base in the MZX32905 system was invaded some days later by both forces. The Twi'lek was alerted to the presence of her enemies by subtle tremors in the Force, and she traveled up to the habitat's observation dome in order to prepare her defense. Confident in her ability to eliminate her opponents, Alema Rar was nevertheless unaware of the true nature or agenda of the Sith intruders, who throughout the engagement planted high-yield explosives upon the Home. Moving quickly to the hangar, Rar left several bombs in the vicinity, in order to trap and kill the three pilots—Jaina Solo, Zekk, and Jagged Fel—upon their arrival. Retreating down into the depths of the asteroid, accessible only via a mine cart network, Rar then used her Force senses, heightened by the dark side power of the habitat, to locate the Millennium Falcon and the three members of the Alema Rar Task Force moving through the asteroid. The Twi'lek drew deeply on the dark side and created flocks of Force Phantoms in the form of parasitic mynocks to accost her enemies. She linked the phantoms to her opponents, forcing the intruders to harm themselves if they wished to harm the mynocks.[3]

Rar's traps and phantoms, however, proved largely unsuccessful in slowing her opponents down. Han Solo, in the Millennium Falcon, was able to evade the mynock phantom linked to his life force, and although Jagged Fel was separated from his fellow hunters by the winged creatures, Rar's opponents kept coming. The Twi'lek dispatched the Sith Meditation Sphere against her enemies, which she sensed was able to somehow incapacitate Zekk soon after. As Rar focused on Jaina Solo, accosting the Jedi Knight with phantoms, her former friend merely presented Rar with a last ultimatum of surrender or death, which the Twi'lek refused. When she realized that the Sith Meditation Sphere had departed the asteroid following its confrontation with Zekk, however, Rar despairingly abandoned her use of Force phantoms and unsuccessfully attempted to recall the ancient vessel.[3]

To escape the worsening situation, Rar decided to steal either the Millennium Falcon or one of the starfighters Solo, Zekk and Fel had flown in on. She ascended the asteroid in a mine cart, exhausted and cloaking herself in the Force. Before long, however, the Twi'lek was forced to engage Jaina Solo, who ambushed her in the tunnels and demanded her surrender a second time. As Rar attempted to evade her former friend, the explosives planted by the Sith began to detonate, venting the mine shaft's air. Unaware of who was destroying the asteroid, Rar swatted Solo out of her way with an exertion in the Force and continued to ascend, only to be confronted by Jagged Fel. Below, Solo escaped, while Fel, using a jetpack built in to the modified armor he was wearing, pursued the Twi'lek up the mine shaft. Escaping explosives detonated by Fel, Rar used the Force to beat Fel with a spar of the mine rail until he crashed into the wall a short distance from her.[3]

Having refused Solo's earlier offer of surrender, Rar was informed by Fel that her life would soon end and with it the last trace of the Gorog hive. Despite her rage and the distraction of the collapsing mine-track, Rar was nevertheless able to use the Force to pluck Fel's blaster from his hand into her own. Triumphant, Rar delivered a short speech to Fel on his errors, as she advanced her lightsaber toward him telekinetically. Just as the Twi'lek sensed Fel's anticipation the Human's rigged blaster exploded in her hand, blowing off her good arm below the elbow and leaving her defenseless and in shock. Fel crossed the distance between them and took the Twi'lek's neck in one of the crushgaunts he was wearing. Aware that she was finally about to die, Rar looked to Fel for clemency. Her former comrade-in-arms denied Rar's unspoken plea, and the Twi'lek became fearful—not for her life, but instead for the memory of herself that she would leave behind. Having once been the dancer, the Jedi warrior, friend to those whom she fought alongside, and admired by her fellows, Rar was afraid that it was not her youthful self people would remember but rather the Dark Jedi she had become. In her last moments, Rar used the Force to speak directly into Fel's mind, urging him to recall the person she had been before her turn to darkness. He vowed to honor the Twi'lek's final wish, allowing Rar to let go of some of her fear. As Fel's grip tightened, the vertebrae in Alema Rar's neck shattered and she died.[3]

The Twi'lek's lifeless body was destroyed along with the the Home, as the high-yield explosives planted by the Sith and their acolytes continued to detonate. Fel, Zekk, and Solo all managed to escape, as did Organa Solo and her husband. Alema Rar's quest to bring Balance to the galaxy ended with her death.[3] Darth Caedus's tenure as Dark Lord of the Sith, although secured by Rar at the Battle of Kashyyyk, ended shortly after the Twi'lek's own demise. Jaina Solo, using the experience she had garnered while hunting Rar, ended her brother's life, and the war itself, when she killed Caedus during the Battle of Shedu Maad.[10] Rar took the secret of the new Sith Order to the grave, and its existence was thus never disclosed to Luke Skywalker's Jedi Order. The phantom technique of Darth Vectivus was lost along with the Home and the Sith Lord's holocron.[3] It was, however, later revealed to the Jedi that Alema Rar had not in fact been the killer of Mara Jade Skywalker—Darth Caedus's involvment was discovered by Ben Skywalker.[28] Luke Skywalker, as the Grand Master of the Jedi Order, felt that Alema Rar's madness had precluded any chance of her recovery and rehabilitation; he believed that while the Twi'lek's death was regretful, it had been a necessary act.[3]

Despite the fact that Alema Rar fell to the dark side of the Force after many years as a Jedi, due in part to outside influence, and after many hardships, in truth the Twi'lek had been driven by anger and fear for a long time.[9][1] Enslavement on Ryloth resulted in a great deal of dependence upon the presence of her sister. Once their shared tutor in the ways of the Force, Daeshara'cor, died at Ithor, Rar developed an angry focus, and her warfare against the Yuuzhan Vong was motivated by vengeance.[12] Numa helped to stabilize the wilful Twi'lek[12] but was herself suspected by the New Jedi Order as fighting in an aggressive and emotionally-charged struggle against the invaders on New Plympto.[14] Once the resistance movement failed and Rar and her sister left New Plympto, they placed refugees in danger. Whilst Numa Rar realized this, Alema was less mindful of the situation and wanted to take the fight to the voxyn and the Yuuzhan Vong despite the death sentence it would impose on Captain Pollux and his crew. Jedi Masters such as Luke and Mara Jade Skywalker felt that Rar was endangering others with their partisan Jedi activities.[1] The death of Numa Rar ensured that the volatile Twi'lek Jedi would fall to the dark side.[1][9] Her actions became largely selfish, the impulse of grief and anger. She was unable to cope with the deaths of refugees, choosing to blame only the Yuuzhan Vong for their deaths and refusing to admit any responsibility.[1]

A slender and fit Twi'lek female, Alema Rar retained a lithe figure throughout much of her life. Her time as a dancer and subsequent Jedi training enabled her to maintain her physical well-being.[1][9] As a Rutian Twi'lek, Rar possessed deep blue skin.[1] Although her almond-shaped eyes were a dark green,[6] they varied according to Rar's mood, appearing pale at times[1] and darker at others, especially when the Twi'lek grew angry.[6] Once Rar had become immersed in the dark side of the Force, the sclera of her eyes took on a yellowish tinge,[21] as was customary for those who remained under its influence for a prolonged period of time.[28] As a Killik Joiner, Rar also took on a few insectoid physical characteristics; she rarely blinked and was seen to "scuttle" when she walked.[6]

From her first duel with Jedi Master Luke Skywalker during the Battle of Kr, Alema Rar's appearance of beauty and sensualism began to fade. The Jedi Master used his skill with the lightsaber to push Rar's blade aside and bring his down upon her left shoulder, cleaving deep into the clavicle and rendering the Twi'lek's left arm useless;[9] it gradually became withered and atrophied.[4] Occasionally, the Twi'lek used the Force to manipulate the inoperable arm;[4][10] it did, however, create problems for Rar in terms of combat and maneuveurability.[3] This was not to be the end of Rar's mutilations. During her duel with Leia Organa Solo aboard the Admiral Ackbar, the Twi'lek lost her right lek to the Jedi's blade.[6] The brain tail, which held much of a Twi'lek nervous system, was crucial in communication among Rar's species,[11] and the loss of half of the lek—Organa Solo's blade severed it just above the shoulder[4]—cost the Twi'lek dearly in terms of her social interactions,[11] despite the fact that she still experienced some feeling in the amputated stump from time to time.[4] On Tenupe, Rar also suffered while fighting Organa Solo in the treetops of the jungle planet; the fallen Jedi did not retreat fast enough from one of her opponent's strikes and lost half of one foot to the lightsaber blade.[24] This gave the Twi'lek a protracted limp.[4]

The Twi'lek's worst mutilation came when she was bitten almost in half by the Tenupian spidersloth. The creature first took Rar's sword arm into it maw and bit down, fracturing the limb, but the Rutian suffered no long term damage to her right arm. It then fed the struggling Dark Jedi into its mouth; the Twi'lek was able to slit the spidersloth's throat, but not after it had bitten down, fracturing six of her ribs and leaving deep wounds in her back and abdomen, which healed as thick, vivid white scars. Her body took on a lopsided twist.[4] Rar's deformities made her easily trackable once holocam imagery of her was obtained.[27] As one of the few unaffected areas of her body, Rar's face, with its thin, straight nose and high cheekbones,[6] remained her last prize. The coy smiles and suggestive looks the Rutian had once favored, however, became cold expressions despite her best efforts, due to the severe psychological and physiological trauma the fallen Jedi had suffered.[4][27][11][10] Rar's body was further damaged during the Second Galactic Civil War; during her escape from the Errant Venture, Jagged Fel broke her left clavicle with a blaster shot.[27] Shortly before her death, Rar also lost her working arm to the explosives in Jagged Fel's custom-built blaster. The limb was severed below the elbow by the blast; by this point, however, any further mutilation was moot, as Rar died moments later.[3]

Han, you do understand how good Alema is? How lucky we were to knock her out?

—Leia Organa Solo, to her husband, Dark Nest I: The Joiner King

Alema Rar was a talented Jedi, proficient in her use of the Force.[9] She made use of telekinesis regularly, employing the Force to batter her enemies in lightsaber duels,[6] hurl them away from her,[9][27] recall her weapons,[9] appropriate those of others,[4][27][3] or throw her lightsaber and other objects at her adversaries.[6][3] She later used the technique to manipulate immovable parts of her body.[4][10] The Twi'lek also possessed an acute danger sense, an ability common to Jedi but which enabled her to survive numerous attempts on her life, such as on Woteba and Kr,[9] and avoid potential threats when remaining hidden.[10] The ability was greatly enhanced by the Force nexus present at the Home.[3] It was not always able to prevent Rar from harm, however; Han Solo and his wife were able to lead the Twi'lek into a hastily devised trap on Woteba[9] and Jagged Fel concealed his anticipation from her as she held his customized blaster, moments before her death.[3] By the time of the Yuuzhan Vong War, Rar had also learnt to shut down her presence in the Force, although this failed to deceive the voxyn aboard the Nebula Chaser.[1] The Twi'lek was able to join the Force Meld during the Mission to Myrkr with no difficulty but was subsequently prone to allow her emotions to spill over accidentally into her friends' perceptions; Rar's fear, grief and anger were often easily discernible to those whom she fought alongside.[1][9] Along with most Jedi, Rar possessed the ability to emerge from an unconscious state more rapidly than a normal being; the Twi'lek, however, following the Yuuzhan Vong War[1] evinced an extraordinary recovery time, with the result that stun blasts, concussions, and electric shocks had only a fleeting effect.[9][6][27][10] She could also use the Force to jump and leap long distances and often empowered her physical actions, such as punches or kicks, with the Force. Another technique the Twi'lek later developed was the ability to carry her voice with the Force, making her words a subtle whisper so quiet that to her enemies they seemed to be a thought.[4]

Following her fall to the dark side, Alema Rar began using abilities which had not been condoned by the teachings of the Jedi Order.[6] The Twi'lek was accurate with Force lightning, able to hurl bolts of electric energy at her enemies and incapacitate or kill them—she used Force lightning to bring down the escaping Jedi Master Tresina Lobi and attempted to kill Admiral Nek Bwua'tu and Mara Jade Skywalker in this manner.[4][6] Rar used other abilities such as Force crush to dispatch or wound her enemies.[4][10] She learned to use the Force to deepen shadows, darkening the environment in which she sought to hide, often to great effect, enabling her to avoid visual detection by Luke Skywalker on the Errant Venture.[6][27] Another technique favored by Rar was the Jedi mind trick, whereby she would exert her Force presence upon the weak-minded and sway them to suit her designs.[4][10] Rar learned a more powerful version of the mind trick when she was a member of the Gorog nest; she was able to prey on her target's doubts and create or distort truths with great effect, skewing logic and convincing herself what she said was the truth. Coupled with powerful use of the Force to back these lies, Rar could convince others that she spoke reason, with her duplicity undetected. The Twi'lek influenced Luke Skywalker and Raynar Thul with this technique during her time with the Killiks[6] and later suborned the Sith Meditation Sphere, a powerful and ancient artifact, to her purposes—ultimately, however, her hold over the sentient vessel proved too weak.[10][3] With the same technique, Rar encouraged Jacen Solo to fire upon his parents during the Battle of Hapes, twisting the facts until he believed that they posed a threat to him.[4] Similarly, she was able to claim herself to be Mara Jade Skywalker's killer to a group of thirty Sith without being revealed as a liar.[10] On one occasion, however, Rar almost succumbed to a mind trick herself, during her duel with Leia Organa Solo on Tenupe.[24] To aid her stealthy passage through areas under surveillance, Rar would also make use of the Force flash technique, creating static interference for brief moments in visual recording devices as she passed.[27]

Rar acquired other arcane and unique abilities during her lifetime. From Lomi Plo, she learned to develop an elusive Force presence, which enabled her to slip from the memories of those whom she encountered moments after departing.[4][27] This could affect strong-minded individuals such as Lando Calrissian[27] as well as entire groups of sentient beings, such as the Unu nest, although on the latter occasion Rar's power was augmented by that of the Gorog hive.[6] Jedi were able to resist the power, however. The Twi'lek was able to determine who retained their memory of her and who did not, as it was not an automatic occurrence.[27] She later developed the ability to conceal herself entirely in the Force[6][4] but gave her presence away occasionally through carelessness or through the emptiness in the Force the technique generated.[6] By far the most esoteric of the abilities Rar learned was the Force phantom technique of Darth Vectivus. The Twi'lek studied Lumiya's notes on the technique and cast her first phantom shortly after the Battle of Kashyyyk. To do so, she had to draw on the extensive well of dark side power located in the Home. Although this first attempt left Rar exhausted for days, she gradually built up stamina with practice, and shortly before her death the Dark Jedi was conjuring numerous phantoms at the same time, fighting different opponents in separate locations. The ability enabled Rar to shed her physical form and travel the galaxy, before alighting upon a sentient being and using their life force to project phantoms of herself, which were under her direct control. On one occasion, Rar tapped into the energy of Allana, the daughter of Jacen Solo and Tenel Ka Djo, while the young girl was sleeping on the Star Destroyer Anakin Solo, despite the girl's strong Force potential.[3] In conjunction with the powers of the Sith Meditation Sphere, Rar was able to become proficient at the art of battle meditation.[10]

Alema Rar's skill in lightsaber combat was accentuated by the grace and fluidity of movement she had learned as a dancer.[1] She engaged Yuuzhan Vong warriors in battle during the war,[1][17] surviving the Mission to Myrkr unscathed.[1] Against other opponents such as Noghri, Rar met with less success.[9] Despite knowledge of lightsaber techniques, such as the guard she should adopt against a more skilful opponent, the Twi'lek was no match for Luke Skywalker when they fought on Kr and suffered for it. In a crazed state, Rar was an ineffective fighter against a skilled fighter and often left herself open to attack.[9] Against a Jedi-in-training such as Leia Organa Solo, Rar fared better.[6] Against a Jedi Master such as Tresina Lobi, Rar had a tough fight on her hands and was wounded while fighting alongside Lumiya. Nevertheless, Rar was able to wait for an opening before eliminating the Jedi Master, utilizing Dun Möch in conjunction with her lightsaber technique to undermine her opponent's confidence. When Rar fought another Jedi Master, Mara Jade Skywalker, at Roqoo Depot, she was able to surprise the woman with her skill.[4] The Twi'lek was able to hold a defensive technique for an extended period, in order to hold her opponent in place or delay their departure, and while doing so, was able to deflect blaster bolts from a skilled shooter such as Han Solo with little difficulty.[27] Rar was also proficient in the fourth form of lightsaber combat.[3] She often incorporated hand-to-hand combat in her fighting, kicking her opponents or even using her sharp Twi'lek talons as weapons.[4] During duels, Rar could make use of the power of Force speed, enhancing the rapidity of her actions.[3]

Alongside her considerable capabilities in the Force, Alema Rar also possessed numerous other talents. During the Mission to Myrkr, she proved herself proficient with blasters and grenades. The Twi'lek was a capable sniper, utilizing a longblaster to eliminate opponents with headshots.[1] She had knowledge of demolitions, using them herself to enter Lumiya's quarters,[10] and was able to defuse high-yield explosives, possessing knowledge of both Imperial and Galactic Alliance detonators.[4][10] Her knowledge of traps encouraged the other Jedi to place her on point several times during the Mission to Myrkr,[1] and while infiltrating Lumiya's home she was able to detect and disarm numerous snares and traps.[10] When she defended the Home against intruders, Rar also set up a number of her own traps in order to eliminate some of her opponents.[3] Rar was also a proficient gunner, proving herself on the Millennium Falcon during an engagement at Borleias.[17] She was a skilled user of a blowgun, although several of her crucial shots missed their targets.[4][27] During her time as a leader of the New Plympto resistance, Rar also made use of her skills of subterfuge and was well versed on interrogation techniques, as proven when she saw through Duman Yaght's objective during the torture sessions aboard the Exquisite Death, as well as on guerilla tactics and strategy.[1] Rar was an expert at disguise, and could act when the necessity arose, fooling Yuuzhan Vong and others on a number of occasions during the war.[1][17] She could fix a hyperdrive[27] and was able to pilot a diverse range of spacefaring vessels, including ancient Sith craft,[10] Sekotan starships,[21] and a Yuuzhan Vong frigate,[16] along with starfighters and other vehicles such as skiffs[9] and swoops.[10] The Twi'lek was a skilled pilot, fighting in elite units such as Twin Suns Squadron during the Yuuzhan Vong War[8] and shooting down Chiss Nssis-class clawcraft during the Dark Nest Crisis.[9] Rar's knowledge of starships and mechanics aided her in subtle acts of sabotage, such as the damage she inflicted upon the Millennium Falcon when she attacked the Solos in 35 ABY[9] and upon the Jade Shadow at Roqoo Depot five years later.[4] Her time spent in the caves of Ryloth during her youth gave her a strong sense of direction, which came in use during the Mission to Myrkr when she led the team through the voxyn warrens.[1] Her self-proclaimed strongest talents, however, following her turn to the dark side, lay in the direction of surveillance and assassination.[11] In unison with her extensive Force abilities, and her time spent with Lomi Plo and the Killiks, these talents made Rar a dangerous foe to her enemies.[27]

Skywalker: "It pains me to say this, Alema. But you are no longer fit to carry a lightsaber."

Rar: "That means nothing! We'll just build another."

Skywalker: "I know. And I'll take that one away, too."

— Luke Skywalker and Alema Rar, during their confrontation on Woteba[src]

As a Knight of the New Jedi Order, a pilot, Dark Jedi and assassin, Rar possessed several lightsabers and other weapons throughout her thirty-odd years of life. The Twi'lek's first lightsaber, which she built herself,[12] was powered by an Adegan crystal, and emitted a silver blade. When fleeing the Yuuzhan Vong aboard the Nebula Chaser, both Alema Rar and her sister were forced to abandon the signature weapons of the Jedi. The lightsabers were thrown into a disintegration chute, and the Rar sisters kept only their crystals, attached to their navels as decorative jewellery.[1] By the time of the Mission to Myrkr, Rar had another, silver-bladed lightsaber, which saw her through the duration of the war and beyond.[1][17] In 35 ABY, however, when Rar fell to the dark side, she used the blade against the Solos when trying to maroon them. The silver-bladed lightsaber was later taken from her by Luke Skywalker during their duel on the moon of Kr. Skywalker subsequently used the weapon as he fought Welk, but Lomi Plo used her abilities to power down the weapon, rendering it useless.[9] Rar soon built another of the signature weapons of the Jedi, once again powered by an Adegan crystal. When she confronted Luke Skywalker and Han Solo in the Saras hangar on Woteba, the Jedi Master once again appropriated her blade. Following their negotiations, Rar demanded the return of her lightsaber and was outraged when Skywalker removed the crystal and crushed it with the Force, before returning it to the Twi'lek.[6]

When Rar built her next lightsaber, she abandoned the silver-colored blade she had favored and created a weapon which emitted a deep blue blade, which almost appeared black. It was with this weapon that Rar combated Leia Organa Solo aboard the Admiral Ackbar and again on Tenupe at the war's conclusion. When Rar was eaten by the spidersloth, her sword arm was taken in first.[6] Rar was able to use the blade to slit the creature's throat and retained the weapon until her duel on Roqoo Depot against Mara Jade Skywalker, using it to decapitate Tresina Lobi in Fellowship Plaza. When the Twi'lek was knocked unconscious by the Jedi Master outside the depot's cantina, she again had her weapon taken from her.[4] For the final time, Rar rebuilt a new lightsaber, once again with a dark blue blade, which she wielded against her opponents at Gilatter VIII[27] and at the Home. Rar's last lightsaber was not recovered by the members of the Alema Rar Task Force and therefore was destroyed along with the Twi'lek's corpse when the asteroid habitat was obliterated.[3]

The fallen Jedi's other signature weapon, following her two years in the Tenupian jungle, was her blowgun and poison darts.[4] Rar obtained many of her toxins from her time on Tenupe, most notably a small amount of Tenupian flesh-eating bacteria, which she gave to the Togorian Morto as a "salve" for the poison-induced pain she had inflicted upon his leg.[10] She utilized powerful poisons to eliminate her enemy, one dart containing enough to eliminate the World Brain on Coruscant and assumed by her to be fatal to an extremely powerful Jedi such as Jacen Solo. The poison rapidly eliminated any beings unfortunate enough to be hit by the darts.[4][27] Along with her lightsaber, Rar lost her blowgun to Jade Skywalker on Roqoo Depot,[4] but soon acquired another, which she wielded againt the Jedi who attacked her on the Errant Venture. The darts were not strong enough to pierce armor, however.[27] Alema Rar's use of poison was well known to her opponents, and it was as such that Jacen Solo eliminated his aunt with a poison dart on Kavan, aware that investigations would point towards the rogue Twi'lek.[11]

Other than the Sith Meditation Sphere unwittingly bequeathed to her by Lumiya,[10] Rar was not known to possess a personal vessel, although she piloted X-wings in the Yuuzhan Vong War[7][20][8][21] and a StealthX in the Dark Nest Crisis[9] and the Swarm War.[24] The Twi'lek favored wearing tight-fitting jumpsuits as her customary attire, even following her numerous physical mutilations, usually under a hooded traveller's cloak which she used when attempting to remain incognito.[4][27] During her time with the Killiks, she wore close-fitted chitin armor to protect her during combat.[6] She was also equipped with other weapons such as concussion grenades and carried around with her equipment to be used in infiltration and reconnaissance, such as her datapad. Following her exile from the Jedi Order and her stint in the Tenupian jungles, the Twi'lek did not have access to funds, nor did she retain credits, choosing to abandon even large sums of cash when she discovered them at Lumiya's retreat during her search for the Sith.[10]

"It took me a while to warm to her, but there's something very brave and quixotic about her. Just about every major figure who is her enemy is far more powerful and experienced than she is—she wouldn't last five seconds in a fair lightsaber duel with some of them. Yet in spite of the odds stacked against her, she keeps pursuing her goals. What she could have been had she not been mangled and gone crazy…"

In the first installment of the Dark Nest series, The Joiner King, Rar's turn to darkness was realized, with the backdrop of the Dark Nest Crisis to explain the final cause. Denning had Luke Skywalker recall his Star by Star prediction, and the author went on to portray the Twi'lek as the dark side nemesis of Leia Organa Solo, who was developed as a Jedi Knight throughout the trilogy. Organa Solo's ascension to becoming a skilled Jedi was reflected as she fared increasingly better against Rar, culminating in her defeat of the Twi'lek during the finale of the last novel, The Swarm War.[9][6][24] Denning, however, left Alema Rar's fate deliberately uncertain, her death unverified.[24] Indeed, Rar was subsequently included in the Legacy of the Force series as an antagonist with her own agenda.[4] Although re-introduced in Denning's first book of the series—Tempest, the third in the series' chronological sequence—readers were already made aware of her survival by means of a excerpt from Tempest which had been included in Karen Traviss' Bloodlines, the preceding installment.[26] In his novel, Denning continued to focus on Rar's darkness but gave the character her own set of morals and agenda, while having her fight alongside resurgent Marvel Comics villain Lumiya.[4] Denning felt that Rar's philosophy of the Balance was an indication that she saw the "good" and "evil" elements of Star Wars more clearly than most other characters and that her adherence to the idea of Balance was a natural reaction to the ordeals she had suffered. Denning also stated that he felt that by the time of the Second Galactic Civil War, Rar had replaced the object of her anger and grief at the loss of her sister with that of the destruction of the Gorog nest.[29]

While seen by some as Denning's "pet character", just as Traviss had Boba Fett and Allston, the series' third author, had Wedge Antilles,[30] Alema Rar's role was nevertheless taken up in equal measure in Exile, the novel written by Allston which took place after Tempest. In Exile, a plotline was developed which saw Jaina Solo, Jagged Fel, and Zekk hunting down the Dark Jedi.[27] Allston professed during an interview that he had not immediately taken to Rar's character but later came to enjoy the Twi'lek's idiosyncrasies and traits, as well as the character's fighting spirit.[31] Alema Rar played a minor role in Sacrifice, the next novel, although following the death of Mara Jade Skywalker,[11] the Twi'lek once again became the focus of the Solo, Zekk, Fel plotline, which was expanded upon in Inferno.[10] In Inferno, a scene in which Rar meets with the One Sith, the antagonists of the Star Wars: Legacy comics series, provided a link between the Legacy of the Force series and the comics, which are set in and beyond 130 ABY.[32] The Alema Rar Task Force plotline was to some extent a precursor to Jaina Solo's later targeting of her fallen brother in Invincible, as well as a vehicle with which to develop the long-running Solo-Fel-Zekk love triangle, but nevertheless served to bring Alema Rar's story to conclusion. Contrary to the established view that Rar was Denning's pet character,[30] the Twi'lek was in fact killed off in the latter half of Fury, which was written by Aaron Allston.[3]